In an article published in Nature Chemical Biology on Monday, the researchers said they isolated the poisonous compound in the mushroom, Russula subnigricans, and confirmed its toxicity by feeding it to mice.
The toxin, cycloprop-2-ene carboxylic acid, has only four carbon atoms.
Apart from the usual symptoms of poisoning, such as nausea, diarrhoea, speech impairment, convulsions, pupil contractions, stiff shoulders and backaches, the human victims in Japan also suffered rhabdomyolysis, which is rarely seen.
Rhabdomyolysis is the rapid breakdown of skeletal muscle tissue due to muscle injury. This leads to the release of the protein myoglobin into the bloodstream which harms the kidney.
Myoglobin was found in the urine of the Japanese victims.
Hashimoto said an adult person would die eating just two or three such mushrooms.
Rhabdomyolysis was also observed in victims in France and Poland after they ate another species of mushroom, the Tricholoma equestre. Hashimoto called for more research in isolating the toxin in that species.
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