Identification of fungi with analytical pyrolysis and thermally assisted hydrolysis and methylation

Different fungi (poisonous, edible and wood decaying) were analyzed with pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) and thermally assisted hydrolysis and methylation (THM) and differentiated according to characteristic fragments. Besides the identification by direct comparison of the pyrograms it was possible to arrange fungal species into groups using principal component analysis (PCA). In some cases, it was also possible to identify specific marker compounds, which are characteristic for one single type of fungi, such as the poison α-amanitin in the death cup (Amanita phalloides), which could be detected in levels below 3.5 ng, and β-dopa in Cortinarius violaceus.