Numerous species of fungi contain substances which are detrimental or even deadly to human beings. When collecting mushrooms as food,
the situation is complicated by the fact that while some species are undeniably toxic,
In the Iron Age, the Druids used the Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) to induce a trance-like state but, generally, in the past most fungi were considered poisonous or at least viewed with a great deal of suspicion. They were also associated, to a greater or lesser extant, with the supernatural and shunned as a possible source of food.
In certain European countries such as France, Italy and Poland, mushrooming for the table has been ardently indulged in for a long time.
As knowledge about mushrooms progressed and with it an acquiantance with the different species, the number of species accepted as edible began to expand. Indeed, once shunned, the new-found zeal became such that most species were declared to be edible. It was only the growing number of cases of poisoning, all too frequently fatal, by mushrooms that brought about a more cautious approach to mushroom hunting.
Modern study of the subject has proved to be complicated as it has been discovered that many species which were formerly thought to be harmless when eaten contain varying levels of toxins and are not as innocent as they were previously considered. As well as the sunbstances involved in direct poisoning, there are a large number of little-studied toxins which accumulate in the human body after the repeated ingestion of some mushroom species and interfere with the activity of various organs, mainly those of the digestive system.
When considering poisoning by fungi, it can be roughly divided into several categories according to the symptoms or the types of toxic sunbstances concerned.
Mushroom poisoning which damages the liver is also known as 'palloid poisoning'. The name is derived from a specific species of mushroom, Amanita phalloides, the "Death Cap", which is the most frequent culprit in cases of such poisoning.
The Phallotoxins concerned are responsible for some eighty to ninety-five per cent of fatal mushroom poisoning and are particularly dangerous as the first symptoms appear a long time after the offending mushrooms are eaten.
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Phalloid poisoning from eating the Death Cap used to cause death in eighty per cent of cases. Modern medical methods have reduced this figure to around fifteen per cent but ingestion of the mushroom will invariably lead to illness serious enough to require hospitalisation and intensive care.
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The 'mushroom' or 'toadstool', the fruiting body of the fungus, contains two groups of toxic substances, the amatoxins and the phallotoxins, which are both present in high concentrations.
Both of these groups of toxins are also present in the closely related 'white amanitas', Amanita verna and the 'Destroying Angel', A. virosa. They are also found in some of the small species of the genus Lepiota (L. helveola and L. scobinella) and in some species of the genus Galerina.
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