Type and treatment of toxic mushroom poisoning in Korea

Eating wild mushrooms that are unidentified or misidentified is very dangerous. In Korea, most toxic mushroom ingestions involve incorrectly identified mushrooms. Poisoning from toxic mushrooms is classified into seven types based on the toxins they contain: amatoxin, gyromitrin, coprine, muscarine, ibotenic acid-muscimol, psilocybin-psilocin, and gastrointestinal irritants. For clinicians treating a patient who has ingested a toxic mushroom, identifying the specific mushroom is crucial but often difficult in practice. Therefore, clinicians should understand the types of mushroom poisoning and their treatments to estimate the causative mushroom and provide adequate care.

Study at a glance

Abstract

To eat unidentified or misidentified mushrooms taken from the wild can be very dangerous. In the vast majority of toxic mushroom ingestions in Korea, the mushroom was incorrectly identified. In general, poisoning of toxic mushrooms can be classified into seven types according to the toxins that they contain; amatoxin, gyromitrin, coprine, muscarine, ibotenic acid-muscimol, psilocybin-psilocin and gastrointestinal irritants. When clinicians care for a patient who ingested a toxic mushroom, it is very important to identify what kind of mushroom may have caused a patient's illness. But, in clinical practice, accurate botanical identification of the mushroom can be very difficult. Therefore, for estimating the caused mushroom and adequate treatment of poisoning, clinicians should know the type and treatment of toxic mushroom poisoning.