Evidence for the Natural Toxins from the Mushroom Trogia venenata as a Cause of Sudden Unexpected Death in Yunnan Province, China

摘要

Over the past 30 years, more than 260 apparently healthy villagers in Yunnan Province, southwest China, have suddenly died of an unknown cause. Yunnan Sudden Unexplained Death (SUD) often strikes in time-space clusters during the rainy season, from June to August, in villages between 1800 and 2400 m above sea level. Epidemiologic studies in 2005 implicated mushroom picking as a risk factor, and studies from 2006-2009 further implicated eating a previously unde-scribed species of mushroom, which we have named Trogia venenata Zhu L. Yang (Figure 1, see also the descriptions in the Supporting Information). We have isolated and characterized three toxic compounds from the fruiting bodies of this mushroom to further substantiate the hypothesis that T. venenata is responsible for SUD.