Discrimination of Amanita Mushrooms Using Fourier Transform Infrared Difference Spectroscopy and Cluster Analysis

In order to develop a rapid and accurate method for discriminating Amanita mushrooms, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) difference spectroscopy combined with hierarchical cluster analysis was used to study the species of Amanita. In this paper, FTIR spectroscopy was used to discriminate samples of Amanita parvipantherina, Amanita griseoverrucosa, Amanita hemibapha and Amanita hemibapha var.ochracea from different region in Southwest China. The results show that their spectra were very similar. To reveal the differentiation of these spectra, FTIR difference spectra were obtained by subtracting the spectrum of Amanita hemibapha var.ochracea from those of other spectra. Evident differences were found in the region between 1800 and 1300 cm^-1. This region in the difference spectra was used to carry out hierarchical cluster analysis with a classification accuracy of 93%. Our study shows that FTIR difference spectroscopy combined with hierarchical cluster analysis could be used to discriminate Amanita mushrooms at species level.