Question: what is the most poisionous mushroom

Jean Bourke answered on 17 Nov 2012:

I am far from an expert in this area but I’ll try and answer your question.

Poisonous mushrooms are just like other poisonous foods: some will only cause discomfort; some are only poisonous if prepared a certain way; some can be rendered harmless by certain processes; some will make you quite ill indeed; and some will just kill you.

Mushroom poisoning cases in general are a result of mistaken identity. So the most poisonous mushroom would not necessarily harm the most people. A slightly less poisonous mushroom that closely resembles a harmless(and tasty) one might be far more dangerous.

The death cap, destroying angel, and fool’s mushroom are all deadly as are the webcap and fool’s webcap. There several other deadly species and indeed there are some species that are only deadly if they grow in a certain area.

The aptly named destroying angel is probably the cause of most cases of mushroom poisoning. The toxicity is due to amatoxin and as little as half a mushroom cap can kill you.

Amatoxin is actually a group of 8 different but structurally similar toxins. They damage the machinery in cells that make proteins, since most of your body and the cell in it consist of proteins this is not good! The liver tends to take the brunt of it as everything we eat goes to our livers first to be detoxified. The kidneys also take a hit as they try to get rid of the bad stuff.

Symptoms set in within a day, sometimes as quickly as 5 hours after ingestion. Unfortunately at this point a lot of the damage has been done and fast treatment is vital for survival. Symptoms include vomiting, cramps, delirium, convulsions, and diarrhea. Treatments includes replacing lost fluids and electrolytes (for diarrhea and vomiting), activated charcoal to try and soak up some of the toxin the gastrointestinal tract, lactulose(helps to remove ammonia and other things), penicillin (antibiotic), thioctic acid (antioxidant), and silibinin (protects liver).

In conclusion: don’t eat random mushrooms you find. Buy them in the supermarket instead. 🙂