mushroom poisoning

Sometimes fatal effect of eating any of the 70–80 species of poisonous mushrooms, or toadstools. Many contain toxic alkaloids. The most deadly, Amanita phalloides (“death cup”), causes violent abdominal pain, vomiting, and bloody diarrhea. Severe liver, kidney, and central-nervous-system damage lead to coma. Over half the victims die. Treatment with thioctic acid, glucose, and penicillin or by filtering the blood with charcoal may be effective. A. muscaria causes vomiting, diarrhea, excessive perspiration, and confusion, with recovery within 24 hours. Gyromitra esculenta toxin is usually destroyed by cooking, but in susceptible people it affects the central nervous system and breaks down blood cells, causing jaundice. Some poisonous mushrooms resemble harmless ones, so extreme caution is needed in wild-mushroom gathering.