The volatile organic compounds from the mycelium of Tuber borchii Vitt.

The mycelium of T. borchii (characterized by DNA analysis) grown in sterile liquid medium produced some VOCs. The VOCs were retained on carbographs by passing a flow of helium, isolated and characterized in a GC-MS equipment after a thermal desorption. The compounds present in the VOCs from the myce lium cultures, but not in the VOCs from the control cultures, contained 29 compounds. The main compounds were 1,3-ditertbutylbenzene (16.1 ng/l), 3-me thylheptane (9.2 ng/l), butan-2-one (8.8 ng/l), ethynylbenzene (5.6 ng/l), and octan-3-one (4.9 ng/l). (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reser ved.