Key Lab of Chinese Medicine Resources Conservation, State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of the People's Republic of China, Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100193, China.
Toxins (Basel). 2018 Nov 25;10(12):494. doi: 10.3390/toxins10120494.
Ziziphi Spinosae Semen (ZSS) has been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine system for decades. Under proper humidity and temperature, ZSS is easily contaminated by fungi and mycotoxins during harvest, storage, and transport, thereby posing a considerable threat to consumer health. In this study, we first used the Illumina MiSeq PE250 platform and targeted the internal transcribed spacer 2 sequences to investigate the presence of fungi in moldy and normal ZSS samples collected from five producing areas in China. Results showed that all 14 samples tested were contaminated by fungi. Ascomycota was the dominant fungus at the phylum level, accounting for 64.36⁻99.74% of the fungal reads. At the genus level, , , and were the most predominant genera, with the relative abundances of 13.52⁻87.87%, 0.42⁻64.56%, and 0.06⁻34.31%, respectively. Meanwhile, 70 fungal taxa were identified at the species level. Among these taxa, three potential mycotoxin-producing fungi, namely, , , and that account for 0.30⁻36.29%, 0.04⁻7.37%, and 0.01⁻0.80% of the fungal reads, respectively, were detected in all ZSS samples. Moreover, significant differences in fungal communities were observed in the moldy and normal ZSS samples. In conclusion, our results indicated that amplicon sequencing is feasible for the detection and analysis of the fungal community in the ZSS samples. This study used a new approach to survey the fungal contamination in herbal materials. This new approach can provide early warning for mycotoxin contamination in herbal materials, thereby ensuring drug efficacy and safety.
酸枣仁在中医药系统中已经应用了几十年。在适当的湿度和温度下，酸枣仁在收获、储存和运输过程中容易受到真菌和霉菌毒素的污染，从而对消费者的健康构成相当大的威胁。在这项研究中，我们首先使用 Illumina MiSeq PE250 平台和靶向内部转录间隔区 2 序列，调查了来自中国五个产区的霉变和正常酸枣仁样本中真菌的存在。结果表明，所有 14 个测试样本都被真菌污染了。子囊菌门是门水平上的优势真菌，占真菌reads 的 64.36%-99.74%。在属水平上， 、 和 是最主要的属，相对丰度分别为 13.52%-87.87%、0.42%-64.56%和 0.06%-34.31%。同时，在种水平上鉴定出 70 个真菌分类群。在这些分类群中，三种潜在的产霉菌毒素真菌，即 、 和 ，分别占真菌reads 的 0.30%-36.29%、0.04%-7.37%和 0.01%-0.80%，在所有酸枣仁样本中均被检测到。此外，在霉变和正常酸枣仁样本中观察到真菌群落存在显著差异。总之，我们的结果表明，扩增子测序可用于检测和分析酸枣仁样本中的真菌群落。本研究采用新方法调查了中药材的真菌污染情况。这种新方法可以为中药材的霉菌毒素污染提供早期预警，从而保证药物的疗效和安全性。
