Antioxidant potential and fatty acid composition of Lactarius sanguifluus

Abstract

Edible mushrooms have been valued as a source of food and traditional medicines since ancient times. Mushrooms have drawn the attention of numerous researchers in recent decades since they contain a variety of bioactive compounds with antibacterial, antiallergic, antidiabetic, antitumoral, and antioxidant activities. As a member of the Russulaceae family Lactarius sanguifluus (Paulet) Fr. (1838) (also known as bloody milk cap) is an ectomycorrhizal edible mushroom distributed in Asia, the Mediterranean shores and mid-Europe. In this study it was aimed to identify the mushroom sample both by physical traits according to the current literature and by molecular techniques. The antioxidant capability of L. sanguifluus methanol extract was evaluated by stable radical scavenging activity and metal ion reducing capability methods. The content of total phenolic compounds and the fatty acid composition of the mushroom sample were also investigated. The mushroom sample was identified both by comparing the physical traits with the current literature and by comparing the sequence data of the ITS region of rDNA with GenBank. The methanol extract of the dried mushroom sample was used to perform the analysis to determine the antioxidant activity and content of total phenolic compounds. It was found that L. sanguifluus methanol extract contained 3.677±0.207 mg GAE/g DW phenolic compounds and exhibited radical scavenging activities as 211.652±0.537 mg TE/g DW against DPPH and 73.389±1.003 mg TE/g DW against ABTS. L. sanguifluus methanol extract also had metal ion reducing capabilities with ferric reducing and cupric reducing antioxidant capacities of 191.903±0.659 mg AAE/g DW and 379.598±7.527 mg TE/g DW, respectively. The GC-MS analysis of the hexane extract of the mushroom sample revealed that palmitic acid, linoleic acid, oleic acid and stearic acid were the predominant fatty acids found in L. sanguifluus.