Deadly mushroom toxin identified

摘要

A toadstool toxin that spurs convulsions, nausea, impaired speech and muscle stiffness - and has led to several deaths in Japan in recent years - has been isolated and identified by a team of scientists. The small molecule is familiar to synthetic chemists but had never been isolated from a natural source, researchers report online May 24 in Nature Chemical Biology.rnAcute poisoning that leads to a breakdown of skeletal muscle tissue - a syndrome known as rhabdomyolysis - is not often caused by a mushroom and is quite different from the effects of toxins produced by the notorious death cap and death angel, comments Petteri Nieminen of the University of Joensuu in Finland.