Discrimination of wild and domestic deer musk using isotope ratio mass spectrometry.

Musk is the dried secretion of the musk pod (sac) of adult male musk deer, and has been used as perfume and traditional medicine for thousands of years. Steroid was regarded as 1 of the most important active compounds in musk. In order to protect the wild musk deer, musk deer farming has been carried out in China, India, and Nepal. However, it is hard to differentiate the 2 origins of musk by morphological identification. No other method has been reported so far for the discrimination of wild and domestic deer musk. The establishment of a reliable discrimination method has become an urgent work. In the present study, 6 batches of wild deer musk and 14 batches of domestic deer musk were collected. Analysis of steroid components in musk was carried out with GC-MS/MS. Androgen, progestin, estrogen, and sterol were detected in those samples. Large diversity was observed in the concentrations of steroids in musk. No obvious difference could be observed in steroid concentrations between wild and domestic deer musk by principal component analysis and cluster analysis. Furthermore, the δ13 C values of steroids were determined by gas chromatography/combustion coupled with isotopic ratio mass spectrometry. There were significant differences (P < .01) in steroid δ13 C values between wild origin musk and domesticated origin musk. Isotopic ratio mass spectrometry can be used to discriminate wild and domestic deer musk.