Poisoning with mushrooms

On the toxic properties of fungi, a person learned in ancient times. Poisonous are mushrooms, in the fruit bodies of which substances that cause poisoning are contained. According to ancient historians, poisonous mushrooms were a formidable and, at the same time, a reliable weapon in the struggle for political power or colossal fortunes.

However, already in ancient times knew: the use of certain species of fungi leads not only to painful death. Some toxic substances contained in fungi affect humans like strong alcoholic beverages or narcotic substances with all the ensuing consequences: delirium, trance and hallucinations. So, the peoples of Siberia in ancient times used certain types of mushrooms as a ritual means: those who used them fell into a state of ecstasy.

Information about berserkers - special military units formed in ancient Scandinavia - has been preserved. Before the battle, they were given to eat small pieces of mushroom or to drink a specially prepared decoction from this mushroom. Under the influence of the toxins contained in it, the warriors fell into a state of frenzied rage and went into battle, sweeping away everything in their path without feeling the wounds and blows of the enemies' weapons.

And although the doctors of the past were powerless before fungal poisoning, they nevertheless tried to explain the nature of their toxic effects. So, already in the middle of the 1st c. BC.e. Ancient Greek physician Dioscorides suggested that mushrooms absorb toxic substances from the environment if they grow near decaying landfills, snake holes, plants with poisonous fruits. His hypothesis was recognized as the main one and existed for more than one century. She was supported by Pliny, among the scholars and writers of the Middle Ages, the supporters of Dioscorides were Albertus the Great, John Gerard and others. Only in the XIX-XX centuries, thanks to rapidly developing chemistry, it was possible to study the properties and establish the chemical structure of toxic compounds, to obtain them in a pure( crystalline) form.

Currently in our country there are about 50 species of poisonous mushrooms, growing from early spring to late autumn. Of these, about 20 species are highly poisonous, representing a threat to life.