The
increasing demand of valuable truffles (Tuber sp.) has prompted new areas of naturally growing truffles entering
the market. Hence, the identification of valueless Tuber species is an important task to prevent food
fraud. Here, we show that sterol patterns are suited to differentiate
five Tuber species (Tuber magnatum, Tuber melanosporum, Tuber aestivum, Tuber
albidum, and Tuber indicum varieties) from each other. Next to the known main sterols of Tuber, ergosterol and brassicasterol, occurrence
of minor sterols in differing shares resulted in characteristic fingerprints
in the five Tuber species, irrespective
of the country of origin. A total of 27 sterols were evaluated, and
we proposed assignment criteria of main sterol relations as well as
eight distinct biomarkers within the minor compounds for the differentiation
of European and Chinese truffles.