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Mushroom poisoning is a very dangerous ailment. Admiring plants and mushrooms, we are often enchanted with their color, smell and shape. We accidentally or intentionally take fruits or parts of plants into our mouths, bite them, or even eat them. Sometimes we prepare a dish out of them, without realizing that they can be poisonous plants or fungi.
Mushroom poisoning
Poisoning by hat mushrooms is classified as food poisoning. In Poland, mushroom poisoning is a serious social and medical problem due to their high frequency, and in case of accident poison with toadstool and its white varieties – due to high mortality. The medical press reports on countries where the death rate of people poisoned with toadstools reaches up to 95%.
Mushroom poisoning is seasonal. We distinguish:
- summer season – it reaches its peak in August, it is caused by the usual stinkhorn,
- spring season – the cause is usually chestnut leafworm (Gyromitra esculenta),
- autumn season – in October with the prevalence of poisoning with rolled krowiak (The pin is wrapped).
Poisoning: toadstool is about 46% of all poisonings; fungi leading to catarrh – 52%; mushrooms with a toxic effect on the nervous system – 2%. Children make up about 30% of the total number of people poisoned by mushrooms.
Symptoms that appear after eating mushrooms may be a consequence of common indigestion in people with primarily impaired digestive tract function, for whom eating a dish made of edible mushrooms is a dietary error. This applies, inter alia, to patients with chronic gastroenteritis, diseases of the bile ducts and pancreas, and young children. Disease symptoms after eating mushrooms may also be caused by the lack of proper hygiene or when the food originally fit for consumption was stored overnight, secondarily contaminated with bacteria, and then only reheated.
Gastrointestinal and systemic disorders can be caused by toxins found in fungi. Only these diseases are classified as mushroom poisoning.
Mushroom poisoning – diagnosis
The diagnosis of mushroom poisoning is not the easiest. What is needed is the dedication of healthcare professionals and, above all, good cooperation with the patient. As a precautionary measure, all consumers of a suspicious meal should be examined, even if the symptoms occurred in only one person. In other words – everyone should undergo a medical examination, even if they did not develop symptoms of poisoning.
Fungi can have a local toxic effect on the gastrointestinal tract and can generally damage the liver and kidneys, stimulating the central nervous system – the brain and the autonomic nervous system responsible for the functioning of internal organs.
Breakdown of mushroom poisoning
From the practical point of view, the following has been accepted to divide mushroom poisoning into:
- poisoning with a short latency period, in which clinical symptoms occur usually from half to five hours after eating food containing fungi, most often abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea,
- poisoning with a long latency period, in this case the first gastrointestinal symptoms appear after more than six hours of eating the mushrooms. It should be noted that in most cases, the longer the latency period (more than 6 hours), the greater the risk of more serious poisoning.
The first group of poisoning includes:
1. Mushroom poisoning that causes only acute gastroenteritis. This group of mushrooms includes, among others dark nursery (Entoloma virida), geese (Tricholoma), common crowskin (Scleroderma vulgare), milky woolly (Milkman) and fawn (Lactarius helvus), gaggle (Emetic russula). These mushrooms contain resins and pectins that are irritating to the gastrointestinal tract. These poisonings are the most common.
2. Mushroom poisoning: funnels (Clitocybe) and shredders (inocybe). The following may occur: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, excessive secretion of tears, saliva, sweat, bronchial mucus, sometimes resulting in asthmatic dyspnoea. In addition, visual acuity may be impaired due to accommodation disturbance, miosis, slow heart rate, low blood pressure, rarely pulmonary edema and death. These poisonings are very rare.
3. Poisoning by toadstools – red and spotted, which contain muscimol and ibutenic acid, hallucinogens and stimulants of the central nervous system. Gastrointestinal symptoms are poorly expressed, and there may even be constipation. In addition, there may be mental and motor agitation, hallucinations, dry skin, pupil dilation, blurred vision, dry mouth, urinary and stool retention, convulsions, increased muscle tension, and even loss of consciousness – coma. This poisoning is very rare, as almost everyone knows the red toadstool.
The second group of poisoning – with a long latency period (over 6 hours) – includes:
1. A toadstool (Amanita phalloides) and its white varieties (spring, venomous and lemon toadstool). After the gastrointestinal upset stage, symptoms of severe liver damage appear. These poisonings are frequent and have a high mortality rate.
2. Chestnut chanterelle (Gyromitra esculenta), which contains alkaloids, gyromitrin, hydrazone derivative of acetic acid. Gastrointestinal symptoms do not always occur, while liver damage occurs in the second phase. Currently, these poisonings are practically not registered in Poland (only in northern regions 2–4 cases per year).
3. The red curtain (Cortinarius orellanos), which after 3 to 14 days from consumption may cause
The main problem, due to their frequent occurrence and high mortality, is toadstool poisoning.
Toadstool poisoning
The muskrat and its white varieties – toadstool: spring, venomous and lemon – these are mushrooms with a lamellar lower surface of the cap. People very often confuse the phalloids mushroom with edible mushrooms such as: lovebirds, sandwiches, kites and field mushrooms, which also have the lamellar hymenophore. The toadstool hymenophore has chalky-white gills, a white ring on the body and the remains of a complete sheath in the form of a vagina at the base of the body.
The phylumbius from edible mushrooms cannot be distinguished neither in terms of taste nor in terms of organoleptic characteristics. It should be noted that it is impossible to botanically differentiate young fungi. Before mushroom picking, one should recall the botanical characteristics of mushrooms, collect only mature specimens, and in doubtful cases, seek advice from experienced mushroom pickers or mushroom experts at sanitary and epidemiological stations.
The toadstool contains 2 types of toxic substances consisting of amino acids – cyclic polypeptides: amatoxins and phalotoxins. For humans, the most poisonous is alpha-amanitine, the lethal dose of which is 0,1 mg / kg of body weight, which makes this poison one of the most dangerous. Translating these data into practical language, it can be stated that eating a toadstool weighing 50 g, i.e. 5 grams, may already lead to fatal poisoning. In our climatic conditions, the greatest number of poisonings occurs in August and September, and sometimes even at the beginning of October.
Symptoms of mushroom poisoning
After a latency period of more than 6 hours, the consumption of the toadstool causes gastrointestinal symptoms such as:
- nausea,
- vomiting
- abdominal pain,
- diarrhea.
Toadstool poisoning also occurs in people who have abdominal symptoms within 6 hours of eating mushrooms. This may apply to mixed poisoning in the case of consuming a mushroom dish consisting of various species of mushrooms.
Attention! It should be remembered that the longer the latency period – the incubation of symptoms, the more dangerous the mushroom poisoning.
In the further course of the disease, the symptoms of mushroom poisoning in the digestive tract usually disappear spontaneously or after administration of medicinal charcoal and other drugs, which may mean a cure. However, in toadstool poisoning occurs the second phase of poisoning mainly characterized by liver damage. There is acute liver necrosis.
Liver damage is manifested by:
- weakness (sometimes very severe),
- jaundice – the skin, mucosa and whites of the eyes are yellow,
- haemorrhagic diathesis – ecchymosis, haemorrhages,
- subcutaneous haemorrhages,
- bleeding or haemorrhage from natural body orifices,
- disturbances of consciousness – from sleepiness to deep coma, swelling and ascites (fluid accumulation in the abdominal cavity).
In addition to damaging the liver, the kidneys and circulation can be damaged. Already in this early period, as the peak clinical symptoms of liver damage are on the 4th to 5th. XNUMX hours after the consumption of mushrooms, death may occur. The causes of death are hemorrhagic diathesis, circulatory failure, or coma.
In cases of light or medium-severe poisoning and those in which there was no early death, the further course is similar to viral hepatitis – infectious jaundice. It lasts from several to several dozen weeks, including the hospitalization itself, i.e. hospital treatment. At this time, there are still various threats to life, mainly hepatic coma.
First aid for mushroom poisoning
If there is any (even minimal) suspicion that mushroom poisoning has occurred, you should immediately contact a doctor who will do a gastric lavage (do not throw away the vomit! I will need it for a mycological examination). Anyone who develops symptoms of mushroom poisoning 4 or more hours after mushroom ingestion should undergo hospital observation.