Brown sugar and sticky rice were frequently used as organic additives in Chinese mortars. This study applied enzymatic spectrophotometric methods to identify sucrose and starch contents in traditional Chinese lime- and earth-based mortars. The focus was to understand and evaluate the qualitative detection capacity of enzymatic method in mortars, by first applying the method on a series of lab-prepared mortar specimens with specific amounts of brown sugar and sticky rice addition, then on historic mortar samples suspected to contain brown sugar and sticky rice. The potential contribution and limitations of enzymatic method in analysis of sucrose and starch in mortars was compared with other common available analytical methods. The results suggested that for lab-prepared brown sugar mortar specimens, enzymatic method was more sensitive and exclusive than chemical method, and particularly had higher detection capacity in lime mortars. For simulated mortars with sticky rice addition, enzymatic method showed no distinct detection capacity differences among the studied inorganic binders and comparing with chemical methods was more sensitive in earth-based mortars. Enzymatic analysis on historic mortar samples was able to distinguish some false-positive results from the chemical and FTIR analysis, which was then corroborated by SEM.

Abstract Engyodontium album is a widespread pathogen that causes different kinds of dermatoses and respiratory tract diseases in humans and animals. In spite of its perniciousness, the basic genetic and molecular background of this species remains poorly understood. In this study, the mitochondrial genome sequence of E. album was determined using a high-throughput sequencing platform. The circular mitogenome was found to be 28,081 nucleotides in length and comprised of 17 protein-coding genes, 24 tRNA genes, and 2 rRNA genes. The nucleotide composition of the genome was A+T-biased (74.13%). Group-II introns were found in the nad1, nad5, and cob genes. The most frequently used codon of protein-coding genes was UAU. Isoleucine was identified as the most common amino acid, while proline was the least common amino acid in protein-coding genes. The gene-arrangement order is nearly the same when compared with other Ascomycota mitogenomes. Phylogenetic relationships based on the shared protein-coding genes revealed that E. album is closely related to the Cordycipitaceae family, with a high-confidence support value (100%). The availability of the mitogenome of E. album will shed light on the molecular systematic and genetic differentiation of this species.