Two edible, cultivable mushroom species of the family Strophariaceae, Kuehneromyces mutabilis (sheathed woodtuft) and Hypholoma capnoides (conifer tuft), were studied using proton nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomic approach. The variation in the metabolites of the two species and their metabolic behaviour regarding caps and stipes and different collection sites were analysed by multivariate analysis methods. Altogether 169 cap and stipe samples of the mushrooms were investigated. The clearest difference between the species was in the sugar composition, which was more diverse in H. capnoides. When mushroom samples collected from different locations were compared, more variance was found in H. capnoides, whereas K. mutabilis appeared more homogeneous as a species. As far as the caps and stipes were concerned, in both species the amount of α-α-trehalose was clearly higher in the stipes, and the caps contained a larger proportion of the amino acids and organic acids.
Keywords: Hypholoma capnoides; Kuehneromyces mutabilis; NMR metabolomics; cultivable mushrooms; multivariate analysis.