Mushrooms produce a wide variety of compounds, most of which have not been studied. Many of these cause irritation to the gastrointestinal tract. Because this group of toxins is so varied, I doubt that scientists will ever bother to catalog all the compounds involved. As a result, most mushroom toxins will likely remain unclassified and lumped into the “gastrointestinal irritants”
These two toxins are the active chemicals in hallucinogenic mushrooms (often called “magic mushrooms” or “‘shrooms”). Psilocybin and psilocin belong to the LSD family of chemicals, but they are smaller than LSD and occur naturally in mushrooms. These compounds can be found in a variety o f mushrooms, including many species in the genera Psilocybe, Conocybe, Panaeolus, and Gymnopilus. Most often, the mushrooms eaten for their hallucinogenic effects belong to the genus Psilocybe, which lends its name to psilocybin and psilocin.
These two mushroom toxins impact the central nervous system and result in symptoms akin to alcohol intoxication. They are the primary toxins in the Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria, and are responsible for the psychoactive affects of that mushroom.
Coprine is a fascinating molecule that is technically not poisonous. So why is it listed along with other mushroom toxins? Because it can result in poisoning, but only if you consume a completely different toxin afterward, namely alcohol. If you drink alcohol after eating a coprine-containing mushroom, you can expect to experience flushing of the face and neck, a rapid and/or irregular heartbeat, headache, nausea, and vomiting, and you may also experience difficulty breathing and tingling or numbness in the limbs or hands. These symptoms last as long as the alcohol is in your system, which may be a while since coprine interferes with the body’s process of removing alcohol.
Muscarine is a toxin found primarily in small brown or white mushrooms in the genera Clitocybe and Inocybe. It is also found in other mushrooms, including the Fly Agaric, Amanita muscaria, but at much lower concentrations. Muscarine was initially isolated in the 1860’s by the German chemists Oswald Schmiedeberg and Richard Koppe, who were trying to research the psychoactive properties of the Fly Agaric. They isolated a compound – which they named muscarine after the Fly Agaric’s species name – that decreased heart rate in frogs and could even cause cardiac arrest when high concentrations were used.
This toxin is present in only a few mushrooms of the Cortinarius genus, so poisonings from this mushroom are relatively rare (at least recently). The two mushrooms responsible for most orellanine poisonings are Cortinarius orellanus and rubellus, commonly known as Lethal Webcaps. These mushrooms are primarily found in Europe, but are sometimes encountered in the United States. Closely related mushrooms that also contain orellanine are known as Fool’s Webcaps.
These toxins are primarily found in the genus Gyromitra (false morels) and can be fatal in high doses. Gyromitrin poisoning accounts for about 2% to 4% of mushroom-related fatalities.
This group of poisons contains the most deadly of all mushroom toxins and accounts for the majority of deaths by mushroom poisoning (perhaps up to 95% globally). Amatoxins are found in many Amanita species (from which the group derives its name) – most notably in the Destroying Angels (Amanita virosa and relatives, see FFF#050) and in the Death Cap (Amanita phalloides, see FFF#051) – as well as in some mushrooms in the genera Galerina, Lepiota, and Conocybe.
Imagine for a moment that it is the late 17th century and you live in rural America. Your day starts off like any other day: you wake up, have breakfast, and begin working on your farm. However, before too long your daughter starts behaving oddly. At first she just seems agitated, but her symptoms quickly escalate. She convulses, hides under the table, yells unintelligibly, and complains of a prickly sensation in her arms and legs. Terrified, you call for the town doctor. The doctor has never seen a disease like this before and cannot find anything physically wrong with your daughter. After a while, he comes up with the only possible cause: witchcraft. Just then, one of your neighbors bursts in, looking for the doctor. His daughter has been exhibiting the same symptoms! You look at his frightened face and realize what you have to do: in order to protect...
Phylum microspora (not to be confused with the green algae genus Microspora) contains some of the most unusual fungi: the microsporidia. There are over 1200 described species in this phylum (and that is only a fraction of their biodiversity), divided into about 150 genera (plural of genus). These organisms were originally thought to be protozoans, but recent DNA studies have demonstrated that they belong with the fungi. The microsporidia are all obligate parasites of animals and have an extremely reduced cell structure. They do not have mitochondria, so they can only grow and reproduce within the cells of their host. Their very resistant spores persist in the environment for a long time and allow them to spread from one animal to another. The spores are 1 to 40 micrometers long, making them the smallest eukaryotes. The spores are rougly oval and have a cell wall made of chitin that is...
![#011: Characteristics of Kingdom Fungi [Archived]](https://www.fungusfactfriday.com/wp-content/themes/hueman/assets/front/img/thumb-small-empty.png)
