“Amatoxins in Amanita phalloides, commonly known as the death cap mushroom, are responsible for 90% of the world’s mushroom-related fatalities. The most deadly amatoxin for humans is α-amanitin, a bicyclic octapeptide that irreversibly binds RNA polymerase II, thus preventing protein synthesis and causing cell death. Three recent poisoning cases in British Columbia show how the death cap can be easily mistaken for edible mushrooms such as the puffball and the paddy straw mushroom.”
More on The World’s Most Poisonous Mushroom, Amanita Phalloides, is growing in BC.
Issue: BCMJ, vol. 61 , No. 1 , January February 2019 , Pages 20-24 Clinical Articles
By: Maxwell Moor-Smith, BSc Raymond Li, BSc(Pharm), MSc Omar Ahmad, MD, FRCPC
UBC Family Practice Residency Program: Abbotsford-Mission Site 