Overview
This controlled cultivation study tested how edible mushroom species accumulate arsenic when grown on substrates amended with inorganic arsenic species and dimethylarsinic acid. It is not a market-basket occurrence survey, but it directly measures arsenic in final edible mushroom products and shows that species differ strongly in accumulation. The lowest reported total As in fruiting bodies was in Agaricus bisporus, while Pleurotus ostreatus HK35 and Pleurotus eryngii reached much higher dry-weight total As under the tested conditions.
Key numbers
The abstract reports final mushroom total As values on a dry-weight basis:
- Agaricus bisporus: 1.97 +/- 0.14 mg/kg DW under the reported experimental conditions.
- Pleurotus ostreatus HK35: 68.8 +/- 19.0 mg/kg DW.
- Pleurotus eryngii: 68.0 +/- 31.0 mg/kg DW.
- Experimental substrate amendments: As(III), As(V), and dimethylarsinic acid, each tested individually at 0.1-0.8 mM.
The paper cites a tolerable daily intake context for arsenic at 0.005 mg/kg body weight/day and discusses food-product safety under elevated substrate arsenic. Those toxicological comparator values are context only and are not HMTc standards.
Methods (brief)
The study cultivated edible fungal species on substrates amended with defined arsenic species. Arsenic accumulation was measured in fruiting bodies and interpreted by mushroom species, substrate arsenic species, and substrate concentration. The paper is speciation-relevant because the substrate amendments distinguish As(III), As(V), and DMA; however, any benchmark pooling should use the reported final-food species/basis only after reading the full tables.
Implications
Certification: This source is mechanistic and controlled-exposure evidence for cultivated mushrooms. It should not be treated as ordinary retail occurrence data, but it can inform why low-As substrate control matters for mushroom production.
Courses: Useful example of species-dependent arsenic uptake and the difference between substrate speciation and final-food arsenic concentration.
App: Supports a supply-chain note that cultivated mushroom substrate quality can materially affect total arsenic in final mushrooms.
Wiki pages this source may touch
Verification notes
- This is a controlled substrate-amendment experiment, not a retail or field occurrence survey. It should be retained as mechanistic/context evidence unless a standards pool explicitly admits experimental contaminated-substrate studies.
- The source reports arsenic species in the experiment design; this page does not convert total As values into inorganic As values.
Update history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git. When DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.