Lipidomic profiling of wild cordyceps and its substituents by liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry

Comprehensive profiling of lipids in cordyceps samples are significantly essential and beneficial for their optimum utilization. However, such researches are scarce. Herein, we used a widely targeted lipidomic approach to comprehensively survey lipids in wild and cultivated cordyceps and mycelia. Totally, 435 lipids were detected from wild cordyceps (from Naqu and Yushu, NCs and YCs), artificially cultivated cordyceps (CCs), and mycelia from Bailing capsules (BLs). Furthermore, via univariate and multivariate statistical analyses, differential lipids among them were pinpointed. Although their lipid composition overlapped considerably, lipidomic profiles significantly differed. These differential lipids potentially served as effective indictors for discriminating geographical origin of wild cordyceps or distinguishing wild cordyceps from its substituents. Notably, for bioactive lipids such as SLs (e.g., Cer, Cerm, Cert, CerP, and SM), GPs (e.g., PE, PC, LPE, LPC, PS, LPS, PG, and LPG), and FAs (e.g., unsaturated FFA and eicosanoid), there were less differences between CCs and wild cordyceps, whereas significant differences existed between BLs and wild cordyceps. Specifically, the majority of differential GPs and SLs were higher in BLs while most of differential FFAs and eicosanoids were lower in BLs. This study provided a wealth of lipid information for future applications of wild cordyceps and its substituents.