Journal of Analytical & Bioanalytical Techniques
Open Access

Research Article

Taxonomic Identification of Hallucinogenic Mushrooms Seized on the Illegal Market Using a DNA-Based Approach and LC/MS-MS Determination of Psilocybin and Psilocin

Veniero Gambaro¹, Gabriella Roda^1*, Giacomo Luca Visconti¹, Sebastiano Arnoldi¹, Eleonora Casagni¹, Caterina Ceravolo¹, Lucia Dell’Acqua¹, Fiorenza Farè¹, Chiara Rusconi¹, Lucia Tamborini¹, Stefania Arioli^2* and Diego Mora²

¹Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Milan, Via Mangiagalli 25, Milan, Italy

²Department of Food Science and Technology and Microbiology, Via Celoria 2, Milan, Italy

*Corresponding Author:

Gabriella Roda
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
University of Milan, Via Mangiagalli 25, 20133, Milan, Italy
Tel: 390250319065
E-mail: gabriella.roda@unimi.it

 

Stefania Arioli
Department of Food Science and Technology and Microbiology
Via Celoria 2, 20133, Milan, Italy
E-mail: stefania.arioli@unimi.it

Received date: August 25, 2015; Accepted date: September 10, 2015; Published date: September 17, 2015

Citation: Gambaro V, Roda G, Visconti GL, Arnoldi S, Casagni E, et al. (2015) Taxonomic Identification of Hallucinogenic Mushrooms Seized on the Illegal Market Using a DNA-Based Approach and LC/MS-MS Determination of Psilocybin and Psilocin. J Anal Bioanal Tech 6:277. doi:10.4172/2155-9872.1000277

Copyright: © 2015 Gambaro V, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

The taxonomic identification of mushrooms suspected to contain hallucinogenic active principles was carried out using a DNA-based approach, thus highlighting the usefulness of this approach in the forensic identification of illegal samples also when they are difficult to identify because the morphologic identification is prevented, due to the bad conservation of the vegetable material. To confirm the presence of the illegal active principles, the optimization of a LC/MS-MS method for the qualitativequantitative analysis of psilocin and psilocybin in mushroom samples seized by the judicial authority is described. For the quantitative determination it was necessary to identify and synthesize a proper internal standard (IS, i.e., 5-hydroxy-N,N-diethyltryptamine), endowed with chromatographic features suitable for the analysis of the active principles. LC/MS-MS analysis evidenced that the amount of psilocybin ranged from 0.5 to 1.4% while that of psilocin from 1.3 to 2.5% (w/w), confirming literature data. The concentration of psilocin was higher in the cap and in the distal part of the stem (near to the soil) than in the part of the stem proximal to the cap. On the other hand the concentration of psilocybin was higher in the cap and in the proximal part, being lower in the distal part of the stem.