Portabella Mushroom (Agaricus bisporus)

English and Scientific Name:  Portabella Mushroom (Agaricus bisporus)

Kingdom:	Fungi
Phylum:	Basidiomycota
Class:	Agaricomycetes

Observation: Who would’ve known that something we use in so many meals has a scientific name.  These are the mushrooms that are used in restaurants to serve stuff mushrooms and they are really a great meal.   Agaricus bisporus is cultivated in more than 70 countries and is one of the most commonly and widely consumed mushrooms in the world (wikipedia.org, 2011).  This organism stems from fungi and while fungi may sound disgusting but after researching I found out that there’s potential medicinal value to mushrooms (wikipedia.org, 2011).  A clinical trial is scheduled to take place at the City of Hope National Medical Center due to earlier research indicating that the common mushroom can inhibit aromatase, and therefore may be able to lower estrogen levels in the human body, which might reduce breast cancer susceptibility. In 2009, a case control study of over 2000 women, correlated a large decrease of breast cancer incidence in women who consumed mushrooms. Women in the study who consumed fresh mushrooms daily, were 64% less likely to develop breast cancer, while those that combined a mushroom diet with regular green tea consumption, reduced their risk of breast cancer by nearly 90% (wikipedia.org, 2011).   

Questions:

1.      Can mushrooms be poisonous?

2.      If there are poisonous mushrooms, does cooking them rid the mushroom of poison?

3.      Can they be eaten raw?

Scientific Research:

Murrill, W. Poisonous Mushrooms, Mycologia, Vol. 2, No. 6 (Nov., 1910), pp. 255-264. Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3753292

Can mushrooms be poisonous?

Yes.  There are so many harmless and edible mushrooms that not enough attention is paid to the poisonous mushrooms (Murrill, 1910).  This is because there are so few poisonous compared to the edible form of mushrooms (Murrill, 1910).  Most of the literature centers on two pieces Amanita muscaria and Amanita phalloides which owing to their abundance, wide distribution, conspicuous appearance, and deadly qualities have been the chief causes of death from mushroom eating the world over (Murrill, 1910).

 Websites:

http://www.producepete.com/shows/portabella.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portabella_mushroom

http://www.pamushrooms.org/

http://www.brmushrooms.com/