Authors: Albert Eugster Petra Murmann Martine Borer Andre Kaenzig
Publish Date: 2011/03/20
Volume: 232, Issue: 6, Pages: 929-
Abstract
Wasabi commonly described as Japanese horseradish Eutrema wasabi syn Wasabia japonica has gained substantial attractiveness in recent years because of its characteristic flavour as ingredient in Japanesestyle food products Wasabi rhizomes are expensive compared to roots of common horseradish Armoracia rusticana A quantitative analytical method for the detection of wasabi plant is required for official food control authority laboratories to detect potential frauds This paper presents a realtime PCR method allowing the detection and semiquantification of wasabi Eutrema wasabi syn Wasabia japonica in complex food matrices The wasabispecific primers and the TaqMan fluorescent probe are targeted at the multicopy gene of the enzyme myrosinase This method was found to be specific for wasabi and did not show any crossreactivity with 24 foodrelevant plant species including 20 members of the Brassicaceae family Because of using the multicopy gene myrosinase the sensitivity is very high with less than about 1 pg wasabi DNA per PCR This realtime PCR method was applied to verify the correct declaration of 10 commercially available products containing wasabi according to the declared ingredients or the product description wasabi powders pastes dressing and snacks 6 samples showed positive PCR results and in 4 samples it was not possible to detect any wasabi DNA The reasons could be the lack of the wasabi plant material or the destruction of wasabi DNA during food processing As a conclusion the presented quantitative realtime PCR method is useful for sensitive and selective detection of wasabi in food products in routine analysis
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