The ITS region provides a reliable DNA barcode for identifying reishi/lingzhi (Ganoderma) from herbal supplements
The dietary supplement industry is a growing enterprise, valued at over $100 billion by 2025 yet, a recent study revealed that up to 60% of herbal supplements may have substituted ingredients not listed on their labels, some with harmful contaminants. Substituted ingredients make rigorous quality control testing a necessary aspect in the production of supplements. Traditionally, species have been verified morphologically or biochemically, but this is not possible for all species if the identifying characteristics are lost in the processing of the material. One approach to validating plant and fungal ingredients in herbal supplements is through DNA barcoding complemented with a molecular phylogenetic analysis. This method provides an efficient, objective, rigorous and repeatable method for species identification. We employed a molecular phylogenetic analysis for species authentication of the commonly used fungal supplement, reishi (Ganoderma lingzhi), by amplifying and sequencing the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer regions (ITS) with genus-specific primers. PCR of six powdered samples and one dried sample sold as G. lucidum representing independent suppliers produced single, strong amplification products in the expected size-range for Ganoderma. Both best-hit BLAST and molecular phylogenetic analyses using a reference panel assembled from Genbank clearly identified the predominant fungal DNA was G. lingzhi in all seven herbal supplements. We detected variation in ITS among our samples, but all samples still fall within a large clade of G. lingzhi. ITS is a successful and cost-effective method for DNA-based species authentication that could be used in the herbal supplement industry for this and other fungal and plant species that are otherwise difficult to identify.