The World’s Deadliest Mushroom May Finally Have an Antidote

Almost all mushroom-related fatalities worldwide are caused by a single group of molecules: cyclopeptides​, which are found in death caps and destroying angels. ​A single mushroom from this family can contain enough toxin to destroy your liver or even kill you. And there’s no antidote for mushroom poisoning. But that could change very soon…

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Credits:
Executive Producer:
Matthew Radcliff

Producers:
Elaine Seward
Andrew Sobey
Darren Weaver

Writer:
George Zaidan

Host:
George Zaidan

Scientific Consultants:
Leila Duman, Ph.D.
Clare H. Scott Chialvo, Ph.D.
Annie Weissman, M.D.
Brianne Raccor, Ph.D.

Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing
Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell

Reactions is a production of the American Chemical Society.
© 2023 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.

Sources:
00:00 Meeting the Destroying Angel
02:33 Toxin Talk
03:12 Antidotes
06:49 Engineering a New Antidote
09:15 A New Method to Find Antidotes
10:39 Indocyanine Green

[ACSReactions]

Some Amanita mushrooms contain the a chemical called amavadin, which binds vanadium more strongly than anything else we know of. This could help us make, of all things, grid-scale batteries. We're going to go deep on this in our next full length video, so mark your calendars for early November-ish.

[thefrogger]

"You get to chat with a toxicologist, which I personally always enjoy" is the most scientist thing to say at the end of a video

[Gaston-Melchiori]

3:00
if it bites you and you die: venomous.
If you bite it an you die: poisonous.
If both bite each other and no one dies: kinky.

[jiripazour]

The problem with death caps is that the poison starts being symptomatic too late to save the person who ate it, already damaging the liver and other organs

[cacogenicist]

An unrelated mushroom in the genus _Galerina, _ -- _Galerina marginata_ -- also contains amatoxins. It looks _a little_ (very superficially) like genus _Psilocybe_ mushrooms in the section Cyanescens. So if you're going to go out looking for "wavy caps" ( _Ps. cyanescens_ ), it's a good idea to acquainte yourself with the appearance of _Galerina marginata, _ which, BTW, does fruit in the same sort of wood debris substrates as the so-called wood-lover _Psilocybe_ species.

These _Amanita_ genus mushrooms mentioned here actually _do not_ smell especially bad, so that's no way to identify them. And by many accounts, they actually cook up quite tasty.

People should keep in mind that there are very deadly plants as well. Mushrooms are not uniquely hazardous -- just don't go eating things if you don't know what they are.

[Heisenberg-]

Psychedelics are just an amazing discovery. It's quite fascinating how effective they are for depression and stress..saved my life.

[Dark_Souls_]

This is the first video I’ve seen of your channel and I paused in the middle to say I appreciate your dedication to science and safety. As a scientist and engineer I find the emphasis on honesty through your jokes lucidating, and thank you for being on my team

[dinkc]

Great video, but I really hate how you don't leave the text on the screen long enough to read.

[thejesuschrist]

very much enjoyed this video. fascinating stuff!

[TerezatheTeacher]

As we Czech people say, all mushrooms are edible. Some, only once.

[zuban]

The most important information was not heard. This antidote will not help almost anyone. "If the antidote is given within four hours." That is the problem. You will not know that you are poisoned until 12 hours after ingestion. Death cap poison dissolves liver. At the time you start feeling sick, your liver has already turned into slurry. The only hope is liver transplantation.
In my country is mushroom picking and eating very common and we love it. The genus amanita contains several edible and very tasty species. I personally love one type roasted on a campfire. The death cap is, espetially when young, a bit similar to other edible species and people who survived poisoning report its taste is delicious. Therefore you have absolutely no suspition that you have been poisoned until it is too late.

[JKa]

A future video may also benefit from an explanation of binding affinity too. For example, buprenorphine - it has a much better binding affinity than narcan, so a buprenorphine overdose cannot be reversed by naloxone

[Dellvmnyam]

Where can I get indocyanine green so I can safely taste my death caps?

[johnford]

Very nice job, although the ending seemed abrupt. Fungi are truly amazing little chemical factories. Thank you for sharing.

[Lightningchase]

Silymarin, the extract of the milk thistle, containing silibinin, is used as somewhat effective antidot, protecting the liver cells by competition for the receptors. The green death cap and the white destroying angle, as well as the fools mushrooms are not described as tasting bad or Snelling bad, which increases danger. The yellow and the citric yellow variants are tasting bad, but less toxic

[mrslinkydragon]

The standard treatment for AMA is a high dose of milk thistle (genus silybum) and a huge dose of penicillin G. This has to be with constant monitoring for kidney and liver damage.

[petergerdes]

Why is it so important the mushroom hunter be trained to help you find *toxic* mushrooms? That's when it's fine to use an amateur mushroom hunter -- nothing bad happens if you accidentally come back with non-toxic mushrooms.

[starkraft]

I had to treat someone who ingested these once. It was one of the only times I've had someone well enough to talk to me with clear mind, but also be 100% certain they were going to die soon. It was bizarre and tragic. An antidote would be huge; alas most poisonings are accidental and result from mis-identification of common edible species... and concerning symptoms prompting treatment don't generally begin until many hours later (I want to say 12-36, but I don't have a reference in front of me). I fear this 4 hour window will not be wide enough for the majority of patients. At least it's something though.

[losfogo]

I remember being a child, being shown this mushroom by by uncle scared the shit out of me, like it could hop into my mouth by itself to kill me. These days it seems rarer in the woods around where i live, dunno why

[nipph]

In poland this family of mushrooms is called muchomory, it literally means fly-death. Cause of this smell it was used back in a day to kill flies - it was sprinkled with sugar, flies would lick sugar and die :D