Which toxins can be found in poisonous mushrooms?

Mushroom poisoning is caused by the consumption of raw or cooked fruiting bodies of a number of species of higher fungi. The term toadstool  is commonly given to poisonous mushrooms, but for individuals who are not experts in mushroom identification there are generally no easily recognizable differences between poisonous and nonpoisonous species.

Old wives' tales notwithstanding, there is no general rule of thumb for distinguishing edible mushrooms and poisonous toadstools. The toxins involved in mushroom poisoning are produced naturally by the fungi themselves, and each individual specimen of a toxic species should be considered equally poisonous.

Most mushrooms that cause human poisoning cannot be made nontoxic by cooking, canning, freezing, or any other means of processing. Thus, the only way to avoid poisoning is to avoid consumption of the toxic species.

Poisonings in the United States occur most commonly when hunters of wild mushrooms (especially novices) misidentify and consume a toxic species, when recent immigrants collect and consume a poisonous American species that closely resembles an edible wild mushroom from their native land, or when mushrooms that contain psychoactive compounds are intentionally consumed by persons who desire these effects.


Mushroom toxins:

http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/Chap40.html

http://www.mv.com/ipusers/dhabolt/dad/mushroom/puffball/puffball4/poisonous.html

http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic874.htm

Deathcap:

http://www.anbg.gov.au/fungi/deathcap.html

http://www.ehendrick.org/healthy/00057320.html