Mushroom poisoning: a personal vignette

Mollison, Lindsay C

doi:10.5694/mja11.10828

Topics

An inquisitive physician explores the effects of a poisonous mushroom first-hand

Illness from eating mushrooms is a worldwide phenomenon.1 In Australia, poisoning appears rare but deaths have occurred in recent years,2,3 perhaps partly due to the changing ethnic mix of the country to include cultures more comfortable with eating wild mushrooms despite knowledge of the risks involved.1

University of Western Australia, Perth, WA.

Correspondence: mollison@cyllene.uwa.edu.au

Acknowledgements:

I thank Heino Lepp and Neale Bougher for their identification of the offending mushroom. Dr Bougher was the first to identify this mushroom in the local area.11

Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

1. Beug, M. An overview of mushroom poisonings in North America. The Mycophile 2004; 45 (2): 4-5.
2. Trim GM, Lepp H, Hall MJ, et al. Poisoning by Amanita phalloides (“deathcap”) mushrooms in the Australian Capital Territory. Med J Aust 1999; 171: 247-249. <MJA full text>
3. Lepp H, Fagg M. Deathcap mushroom. Amanita phalloides. Canberra: Australian Government Department of Environment and Water Resources, 2011. http://www.anbg.gov.au/fungi/deathcap.html (accessed Sep 2011).
4. Benjamin DR. Gastrointestinal syndrome. In: Mushrooms: poisons and panaceas — a handbook for naturalists, mycologists and physicians. New York: WH Freeman and Company, 1995: 351-377.
5. Bougher NL. Fungi of the Perth region and beyond. Perth: Western Australian Naturalists’ Club, 2009. http://www.fungiperth.org.au/Fieldbook-all/Perth-Fungi-Field-Book.html (accessed Nov 2011).
6. Beug MW, Shaw M, Cochran KW. Thirty-plus years of mushroom poisoning: summary of the approximately 2,000 reports in the NAMA case registry McIlvanea 2006; 16 (2): 47-68.
7. Volk T. Tom Volk’s fungus of the month for August 1999. La Crosse, Wis: Thomas J. Volk, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, 1999. http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/aug99.html (accessed Sep 2011).
8. Pauli JL, Foot CL. Fatal muscarinic syndrome after eating wild mushrooms. Med J Aust 2005; 182: 294-295. <MJA full text>
9. Barbato MP. Poisoning from accidental ingestion of mushrooms. Med J Aust 1993; 158: 842-847.
10. Hoffmann H, Bougher NL. Recognising edible field mushrooms. Garden note no. 4422, 2010. Perth: Western Australia Department of Agriculture and Food, 2010.
11. Bougher N. The poisonous green-gilled fungus Chlorophyllum molybdites in south Western Australia. Australian Mycologist 1999; 18: 60-62, 80.

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.