Gold-Modified Electrochemical Sensor for Rapid Detection of Muscarine in Mushroom Poisoning

Muscarine is a toxic alkaloid produced by neurotoxic mushrooms, known for its heat stability. Ingesting muscarine-containing mushrooms rapidly stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system within 15 min, leading to mushroom poisoning. To address this issue, we developed an electrochemical sensor using a screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) modified with gold to detect muscarine. The electrochemical behavior of muscarine was studied in acidic conditions using 10 mM potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7) as an oxidizing agent and DI water as the supporting solution. The cathodic current responded to the muscarine concentration which was detected in 2 min of reaction time by differential pulse voltammetry. Under optimal conditions, the detection limit was 4.07 µg/mL. The developed muscarine electrochemical sensor was tested on mushroom samples, and the results were compared with chemical and morphological identification. The gold-modified SPCE, combined with dichromate (Cr2O72−) as a reagent, showed promise for development as a point-of-care testing electrochemical sensor capable of detecting muscarine in mushroom samples. HIGHLIGHTS A screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) modified with gold and using dichromate (Cr2O72−) as an oxidizing agent was developed as a muscarine electrochemical sensor, and the muscarine concentration correlated with the reduction in peak current of Cr2O72−. This electrochemical sensor demonstrated high sensitivity, low cost, low reagent consumption, and rapid analysis for detecting muscarine in mushroom samples with analytical uses in the toxicology field. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT