Dister/Wirestock Creators - stock.adobe.com - illustrative purposes only - pictured above is a mushroom in the woods
Mushrooms are a marvel worth digging into -- literally and figuratively! These fabulous fungi come in a range of colors, shapes, and sizes and grow in places all over the world, which means there's so much to learn about them.
In the fall, you can forage for them in forests. The right kinds will add flavor to your dinner and provide you with plenty of nutrients.
However, mushrooms are rather mysterious and some can be stranger than others. Of course, it is well-known that there are poisonous mushrooms among the edible ones, and knowing the difference between them is critical.
Yet, researchers from Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology -- Hans Knöll Institute have investigated the question of whether or not mushrooms are truly poisonous.
They examined a toxin called muscarine, which is found in many types of mushrooms. The best known is the fly agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria), for which the toxin is named after.
Even so, significantly higher concentrations of muscarine can be found in fiber cap mushrooms and fool's funnel mushrooms.
The researchers were able to prove that muscarine is not just present in mushrooms as a toxin, but it can also be stored as a harmless compound, only becoming released when mushrooms are injured.
Muscarine was discovered 150 years ago as the first fungal toxin. In the new study, it was determined that muscarine is stored in the fool's funnel mushroom (Clitocybe rivulosa) as 4phosphomuscarin, which is not as toxic.
"There are other indications that other substances are also present because pure muscarine apparently has a different effect than a mushroom containing muscarine," said Sebastian Dorner, a doctoral researcher who was one of the study authors.
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