title: Profiling metals inCordyceps sinensisby using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.
abstract: Cordyceps sinensis(C. sinensis) is a natural product that has diverse nutritional and medicinal values. Since the availability of naturalC. sinensisbecomes limited its authentication and quality control is of high significance. Herein we report on profiling of metals inC. sinensisby using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The analysis reveals thatC. sinensiscontains a wide array of essential elements, including P, Mg, Zn, Cu, Fe, etc. Toxic metals detected are Cd, Pb, and As. In all five samples analyzed Pb contents are below 2.0 ppm. Arsenic level inC. sinensiscaterpillar is significantly higher than that in its mycelium and varies from 3.0 to 32 ppm likely due to soil contamination. It's for the first time demonstrated in this work that clustering analysis on the proposed metal profiles consisting of 24 elements is very useful to identify "abnormal"C. sinensissamples, thus adding another dimension to the effective means for authentication and quality assessment of this highly demanded previous natural product.
authors.affiliation: Wuhan University Zhongnan Hospital, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Wuhan University Zhongnan Hospital, Wuhan 430071, China; Wuhan Yaogu Biotech, Ltd. Wuhan 430075, China.
authors.forename: Hankun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Wuhan University Zhongnan Hospital, Wuhan 430071, China.
authors.forename: Baogeng
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Jackson State University, 1400 Lynch St. Jackson, MS 39217, USA.
authors.forename: Zikri
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Arslan
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Jackson State University, 1400 Lynch St. Jackson, MS 39217, USA.
authors.forename: Hung-Chung
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: School of Science and Technology, Georgia Gwinnett College, Lawrenceville, GA 30043, USA.
authors.forename: Weidong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.affiliation: Wuhan Yaogu Biotech, Ltd. Wuhan 430075, China; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Jackson State University, 1400 Lynch St. Jackson, MS 39217, USA.
authors.forename: Yi-Ming
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: Clustering analysis; Cordyceps sinensis; ICP-MS; Metal Profile; Natural products; Toxic metals