Type and treatment of toxic mushroom poisoning in Korea
Journal of Korean Medical Association – January 01, 2015
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Eating wild mushrooms is perilous; the vast majority of toxic ingestions in Korea result from misidentification. Understanding mushroom biology is crucial in toxicology. Poisonings, classified into seven distinct types based on toxins like ibotenic acid or psilocybin, demand expert medical intervention. Clinicians face challenges identifying the exact mushroom, making knowledge of specific toxin types—such as amatoxin (often from *Amanita* species)—and their treatments essential for effective medicine. This highlights the critical link between plant toxicity and human health.
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.