Happy New Week Steemians!
My Name is Ubong Okon

Unfortunately, last week was a terrible one for us Nigerians down here. Many innocent lives were lost from Plateau State herdsmen killings, and Lagos-Ibadan explosion. Most people are saying "pray for Nigeria", but it seems like the more we pray, the more things get out of hand. Although I do not in any way doubt the power of prayers, but from a rational point of view, you'll agree with me that those incidents didn't just happen out of ignorance. Sincerely, there all could have been avoided. But hell no; some people valued cows more than the lives of humans, while others preferred neglecting road safety measures.

Aside from the Plateau State and Lagos State sad stories, let us focus on a mushroom poisoning incident I witnessed in a small rural community in Akwa Ibom State on Tuesday 12th June, 2018. A family of five (5) was completely wiped out after mistakenly using wild mushrooms to prepare stew. Personally I won't say that this particular incident could have been avoided because most of the villagers before now never knew the different types of mushrooms aside from the edible ones. The very few that knew about wild mushrooms never really understood the level of toxicity elicited by these fungi. And even with the fact that these victims were medically confirmed to be killed by mushroom poisoning, their relative till date is still attributing it to witchcrafts.

The truth is, you just can't blame so many Nigerians attributing mushroom poisoning to witches and wizards, rather put the blame on the media. Since mushroom poisoning is not an everyday thing in this part of the world, the media somehow feels that it's not important. A typical example is the incident I just mentioned earlier. Surprisingly, no broadcasting media has covered the incident yet. Maybe because educating the public on health related issues won't be profitable as covering political events and rallies. Yeah, that's the situation we've found ourselves and it's quite pathetic.

What you should know about mushroom poisoning

I won't bore you with the details of the different types of mushrooms. However, for mushroom lovers, the most important thing you must know is that the ratio of poisonous or toxic mushrooms to edible mushrooms is far greater than what one could possibly imagine. I'm really sorry if that sounds scary, but it's nothing but the truth. The chance of picking toxic mushrooms instead of edible ones is high because both possess similar features depending on the species.

As a result of these similarities, there's increased risk of accidental poisoning. A country like Nigeria is even more prone to accidental mushroom poisoning. This is because people in this part of the world don't check the kind of mushrooms they gather from the bush, owing to the fact that we all grew up to see our parents and ancestors eating them without having health challenges. But unfortunately the world has changed over time and the beautiful, delicious angels are gradually being replaced by the angels of death.

Amanita phalloides happens to be the commonest wild mushroom that cause accidental poisoning. This is due to the fact that it has relatively high resemblance with the edible mushrooms. It grows under hard woods such as oaks and chestnuts, and shares a kind of symbiotic relationship with these hardwoods. Since their survival depends on the hardwoods, importation of these trees into different countries has led to the distribution of these toxic mushrooms in the entire world.

Though mushrooms are soft and fragile, however, ingestion of half or fragment of a wild mushroom is capable of killing anyone. For those that are lucky enough to escape death, they always end up with liver or kidney failures. Also, when considering mushroom poisoning, it's worthy of note that the rate of reaction is always very fast. In some cases, less than 15 minutes the symptoms will be quite obvious. The commonest symptoms include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting.

The toxin present in all wild mushrooms

Amatoxin (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Author: Edgar181]:Wiki commons

In all the toxic or wild mushrooms, the commonest toxin that's always present is amatoxin. Actually, it might interest you to know that a particular wild mushroom may have more than ten (10) different subgroups of toxic compounds embedded in one toxin. This is one of the reasons why mushroom poisoning is very fatal. In the case of amatoxin, it possesses eight (8) subgroups of toxic compounds. The unique fact about amatoxin is that its lethality is not diminished. The effect produced by a small dose is also the same effect produced if the wild mushrooms are consumed in excess.

Is mushroom consumption worth the risk?

When considering the risk involved in accidental mushroom poisoning, people might completely want to avoid consuming mushrooms so as not to fall a victim. The truth is, though edible mushroom may never be one of the world's staple, but it definitely has nutritional value and it's mostly used in traditional medicine. Nutritionally speaking, it's seen as a very good vegetable source, and sometimes as an animal protein source. But the problem lies in being able to differentiate it from the wild mushrooms. For those that really don't know the differences between these distinct species, I really don't think consuming mushroom is worth the risk.

Final thoughts

I'm sure someone might want to ask, "why is it that wild mushrooms still elicit harmful effects even after being cooked?". The answer is that, heat has absolutely no effect on most of these wild mushrooms since they are thermostable. Hence, it's advisable for one to be very careful before consuming mushrooms. They may be soft and fragile, but at the same time, they kill without mercy. Thanks for reading.

For more knowledge on this topic, read up:

Wikipedia Information on Mycotoxin. Retrieved 1st July, 2018

Wikipedia Information on Amanita phalloides. Retrieved 1st July, 2018

Mushroom poisoning syndrome. Retrieved 1st July, 2018

National Centre for Biotechnology and Information on Amatoxin. Retrieved 1st July, 2018

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All images are from wikicommons licensed under creative commons and eligible for commercial use.