Mushroom toxins: a forensic toxicological review

Mushrooms are ubiquitous in the world. Amateur hunters harvest mushrooms growing in forests to enjoy eating them as seasonal delicacies, and occasionally they cause poisonings and even deaths. In this review, mushroom toxins are tabulated according to mushroom species, symptoms, toxicities and analytical methods on the basis of references. Second, because we constructed a method for analysis of amatoxins, the most virulent mushroom toxins, by liquid chromatography-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry, we introduce it for use in forensic toxicology. Third, an extensive poisoning incident after consumption of the usually edible mushroom Pleurocybella porrigens took place in nine prefectures in Japan from September to December 2004, resulting in 59 poisoned people including 19 deaths; this incident is briefly described and discussed in relation to its causative toxin(s). Finally, we present the chemical structures of new toxins purified from the highly toxic mushrooms Podostroma cornu-damae and Russula subnigricans; their structures were very unique, and the toxicities were comparable to those of amatoxins. From the forensic toxicological point of view, reports on sophisticated methodology for analyses of mushroom toxins seem to be too scant even for the well-known toxins. Hereafter, a number of toxic mushrooms and their new toxins are expected to be disclosed, especially because of environmental changes such as the global warming phenomenon.