There are tens of thousands of mushroom species out there, and some of them could kill you. Today we’re going to test how well you can separate the perfectly safe from the perilously poisonous, and dive into the chemistry behind what makes seemingly identical species so different.

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Credits:
Producer: Elaine Seward
Writer: Samantha Jones, Ph.D.
Scientific Consultants: Leila Duman, PhD Brianne Raccor, PhD, Jianping Xu, PhD Kathie Hodge, PhD

Executive Producer: George Zaidan
Executive Producer: Hilary Hudson

Sources:

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31002608

Antioxidants of edible mushrooms
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26516828

Edible mushrooms as a ubiquitous source of essential fatty acids
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Anti-inflammatory properties of edible mushrooms: A review
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Mushroom toxicity
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New Studies on Hallucinogenic Mushrooms: History, Diversity, and Applications in Psychiatry.
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Metabolism of psilocybin and psilocin: clinical and forensic toxicological relevance
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NF-κB signaling in inflammation
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Compound Chemistry: The Chemistry of Mushroom Poisons
https://i0.wp.com/www.compoundchem.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Chemistry-of-Mushrooms.png

alpha-Amatoxin
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/alpha-Amatoxin

Muscarine
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/9308

Atropine
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470551/

Muscarinic Toxicity Among Family Members After Consumption of Mushrooms
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3702120/

Psilocybin induces schizophrenia-like psychosis in humans via a serotonin-2 agonist action
https://insights.ovid.com/crossref?an=00001756-199812010-00024

Amatoxin Mushroom Toxicity
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK431052/

Traditional knowledge and use of wild mushrooms by Mixtecs or Ñuu savi, the people of the rain, from Southeastern Mexico
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5011354/

Gyromitra Mushroom Toxicity
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470580/

The antioxidant activities of alkalic-extractable polysaccharides from Coprinus comatus on alcohol-induced liver injury in mice
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-30104-6

Consumption of Coprinus comatus polysaccharide extract causes recovery of alcoholic liver damage in rats.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24597653

Mushrooms, Coprine
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780123864543007545

Amanita muscaria (fly agaric): from a shamanistic hallucinogen to the search for acetylcholine.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29741535

Muscarine – mushroom hunting can be a dangerous sport
https://natoxaq.ku.dk/toxin-of-the-week/muscarine/

Mushroom toxins
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Amanita phalloides mushroom poisoning
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Edible and Poisonous Fungi, 1924
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Magic Mushroom Drug Evolved to Mess with Insect Brains
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/magic-mushroom-drug-evolved-to-mess-with-insect-brains/

The whiff of danger
https://www.nature.com/articles/4371248a

Mushroom warning odors
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/497399?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Horizontal gene cluster transfer increased hallucinogenic mushroom diversity
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/evl3.42

Mushroom poisoning epidemiology in the United States
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Amanita phalloides Mushroom Poisonings — Northern California, December 2016
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6621a1.htm

Acute Liver Failure Caused by Amanita phalloides Poisoning
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3395149/

Methylhydrazine
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Methylhydrazine

Modulation of Monomethylhydrazine-Induced Seizures by Ivermectin
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1853361-modulation-of-monomethylhydrazine-induced-seizures-by-ivermectin/?from_term=monomethylhydrazine&from_pos=2

Amanita muscaria: chemistry, biology, toxicology, and ethnomycology
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0953756208611582

NAMA Mushroom Poisoning Syndromes
https://namyco.org/mushroom_poisoning_syndromes.php#coprine

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