Poisonous Mushrooms

The world of mushrooms also contains very poisonous and treacherous species that have entered human history as hostages of mysterious "cutthroats" and have contributed to the crippling of many people's lives or even to their deaths.

More than 1000 species of poisonous mushrooms grow in Europe; in our forests, parks and gardens over 100 are known so far, of which 20–30 are very dangerous to human life.

However, these are only approximate figures, because there is no strict boundary between inedible and poisonous, and moreover the harmful properties of only a few poisonous mushrooms have been studied. There is no need to fear poisonous mushrooms – you just need to know them. They are not a snake or a scorpion, a hornet or even the good little bee, which, when carelessly stepped on, squeezed or otherwise provoked, will defend themselves with a venomous bite.

Very poisonous are the death cap and the destroying angel, the livid pinkgill (Entoloma), the spruce conecap, the blushing (Patouillard's) fibrecap, the fierce and poisonous funnels and some others. Even 2–3 such mushrooms that get into the pot are, without any exception, equally deadly to the young, adults and the old. A single fruiting body of the blushing fibrecap weighing 30–100 g is mortally dangerous to a person weighing 70 kg.

These mushrooms are now well studied, and it is known which of the substances they contain are poisonous; for example, in the most dangerous mushroom – the death cap – as many as 16 poisonous substances have been identified, 7 of them especially dangerous: amanitins, amanin, phalloidin, phallacidin, etc. It is enough to eat a fruiting body weighing 50 g, containing 5–7 mg of amatoxins alone, which do not dissolve in boiling water – and this is already a lethal dose for a human (in a 100 g fruiting body the amount of amatoxins is doubled). The literature states that of 562 cases of poisoning, 282 were fatal. The other mushrooms mentioned have similar properties.

A mushroom's toxicity depends on where it grows and on its age and size: the younger it is, the more terrible. The most terrible thing is that when poisoned by these mushrooms, one feels ill only when it is already too late – after several or even a dozen or more hours, and sometimes even after 2 days or later, when the poison has already been absorbed into the blood and has damaged the functioning of the liver and brain.

In such cases it is almost impossible to save oneself. The poison has already done its dark work. Yet however repulsive the Amanitas and other toadstool-looking poisonous mushrooms may appear, and although many people know them well, these tricksters still sneak into the basket and through their deceit cause a great deal of trouble for the inattentive mushroom picker. Every year in Lithuania there are still several cases of poisoning, and then even doctors are sometimes powerless to save a life.

In the simplest and most understandable way, poisonous mushrooms can be divided into three groups according to the symptoms of poisoning:

a) mushrooms that merely irritate the digestive tract (some bitter milkcaps, brittlegills). After eating them, within 1–2 hours the temperature rises and the patient vomits and has diarrhoea, but recovers after a couple of days;

b) mushrooms whose poisons act on the nervous system (the fly agaric, the false death cap, the blusher). After eating them, within 2–3 hours nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea begin, the pupils dilate and hallucinations appear; if medical help is given quickly, such patients recover without much difficulty;

c) mushrooms whose poisons (amatoxins, phallotoxins, especially phalloidin, amanitin) destroy blood, liver or brain cells (the death cap, the destroying angel, the livid pinkgill, the blushing fibrecap, the spruce conecap). 8–24 or even 48 hours or more after the meal, liver function is disrupted (the liver hardens), and pain, convulsions, vomiting and diarrhoea appear, followed by loss of consciousness; the symptoms subside somewhat and then worsen again, attacks of pain recur and the temperature rises.

It should be borne in mind that soggy, maggot-ridden mushrooms or mushrooms nipped by several frosts, especially those growing in late autumn and later (in December), can also cause severe poisoning – just like spoiled meat, fish or butter. In the realm of the gilled mushrooms, the ones to be most feared are the Amanitas, the pinkgills, the fibrecaps, the funnels and the rollrims.

Among the boletes and the brittlegill family, of which about 130 species grow in Lithuania, there are no especially dangerous ones. Of the mushrooms growing in spring, the most dangerous is the false morel. It has been found to contain the poisonous substance gyromitrin, which does not break down completely when boiled, so sometimes one can be poisoned even by false morels that have been boiled twice. When the mushrooms are dried (in a shady place, but only a non-residential one), the gyromitrin evaporates over 2–3 months and its toxicity is greatly reduced.

In the event of mushroom poisoning, put the patient to bed immediately, because heart function is impaired in all cases; place a hot-water bottle at the feet and on the abdomen, give tea or coffee to strengthen the heart, and categorically avoid alcoholic drinks. Induce vomiting and diarrhoea artificially and see a doctor as quickly as possible.