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The relationship between risk elements contamination of wild edible mushrooms (Boletus reticulatus Schaeff.) and underlying soil substrate

Source

Janco and colleagues measured Cd, Pb, and Hg in wild edible Boletus reticulatus fruiting bodies and paired soils from eight locations in Slovakia.

Author Karen Pendergrass UPDATED 2026-06-01Cite this pageVersion history
Page snapshot
Cited by5 pages
Metals measured3
Evidence tierA
Year2019

Overview

Janco and colleagues measured Cd, Pb, and Hg in wild edible Boletus reticulatus fruiting bodies and paired soils from eight locations in Slovakia. The source is routeable because it reports cap and stem concentrations on a dry-weight basis and counts regulatory-limit exceedances. Cadmium was the dominant exceedance concern: all cap samples and 75% of stem samples exceeded the referenced Cd limit.

Key numbers

All concentrations are mg/kg dry weight.

  • Soil ranges: Cd 2.09-33.5, Pb 12.5-57.5, Hg non-detect to 0.14.
  • Mushroom caps: Cd 1.00-10.6, Pb non-detect to 6.41, Hg 0.01-2.02. Highest location averages were Cd 6.45 +/- 2.25 at Nizne Ruzbachy, Pb 3.73 +/- 1.34 at Kolackov, and Hg 1.39 +/- 0.38 at Maly Lipnik.
  • Mushroom stems: Cd non-detect to 4.08, Pb non-detect to 14.3, Hg 0.01-1.17. Highest location averages were Cd 2.63 +/- 0.45 and Pb 6.04 +/- 4.22 at Nizne Ruzbachy, and Hg 0.72 +/- 0.15 at Maly Lipnik.
  • The authors report 100% cap Cd exceedance, 50% cap Pb exceedance, 40% cap Hg exceedance, 75% stem Cd exceedance, and 38% stem Pb exceedance against the limits they applied.

Methods (brief)

The study collected Boletus reticulatus mushrooms and underlying soil from eight Slovak locations. Mushroom caps and stems were analyzed separately for Cd, Pb, and Hg. The paper reports concentration ranges, location averages, and limit-exceedance percentages.

Implications

This is a strong geography-specific source for wild edible mushroom Cadmium, Lead, and Mercury, Total. The cap/stem split matters because caps tend to carry different concentrations than stems. It should be used as Slovakia and wild-foraged mushroom evidence, not silently pooled with cultivated fresh mushrooms from other markets.

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Verification notes

  • DOI, title, authors, journal, and year were taken from the PDF header. Author names are ASCII-normalized in frontmatter for tooling compatibility.
  • Hg is total Hg only. The paper does not provide methylmercury.
  • Soil rows are contextual and should not be used as food occurrence values.

Update history

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