Arsenic in Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms from Southwest China.

Many species of wild-grown mushrooms are appreciated as food and also found use in traditional medicine. As arsenic is one of the most hazardous elements due to the carcinogenic risk, the contents of total arsenic in 48 species of wild-grown edible and medicinal mushrooms in China were determined by atomic fluorescence spectrometry. The results showed that the highest content was found in Scleroderma citrinum (1.70 mg kg-1 dry weight, dw), whereas the lowest content was found in Termitomyces eurrhius (0.17 mg kg-1 dw).