International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms

ISSN for PRINT: 1521-9437

For Online Access

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2003, Volume5

Issue 1

102 pages

DOI: 10.1615/InterJMedicMush.v5.i1

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Solomon P. Wasser
International Centre for Cryptogamic Plants and Fungi, Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel, Haifa, Israel; and N.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine

Michael Berreck
Institut fur Mikrobiologie Universitat Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 25, A-6020, Innsbruck, Austria

Kurt Haselwandter
Institut fur Mikrobiologie Universitat Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 25, A-6020, Innsbruck, Austria

Concentrations of ¹³⁴Cs and ¹³⁷Cs in fruiting bodies of 98 species of wild-growing mushrooms and substrates from their habitats (652 samples in all), collected in 1993, 1996, 1998, and 1999 in 73 locations of Kiev, Chernigiv, Zhytomyr, and Volyn' regions of Ukraine, were studied by gamma-spectrometric methods. Radiocesium content in mushrooms varied over a wide range. A maximum level of ¹³⁷Cs at 17,117,000 Bq/kg d.w. was found in samples from the Chernobyl area in 1993 in fruiting bodies of Gomphidius glutinosus, and at 13,203,906 Bq/kg d.w. in Lactarius turpis. In 1998 the level in Boletus edulis was 10,833,333 Bq/kg d.w. and in Suillus luteus it was up to 13,869,532 Bq/kg d.w. In 1999 in S. luteus it was 12,918,330 Bq/kg d.w. Interspecific differences in levels of radiocesium accumulation among the studied mushroom species from the same habitat reached 10³ times. A comparison of obtained data with previous data showed that the highest levels of radiocesium were in mycosymbiotrophs: some representatives of the families Russulaceae (Lactarius helvus, L. turpis, L. rufus), Boletaceae (Xerocomus badius, Suillus luteus, Leccinum scabrum, Boletus edulis), Gomphidiaceae (G. glutinosus), Paxillaceae (Paxillus involutus, P. atrotomentosus), Cortinariaceae (Hebeloma crustuliniforme, Cortinarius praestans), Amanitaceae (Amanita phalloides, A. muscaria, A. citrina). Hence they could be considered hyperaccumulators of radioactive fission decay products and they could be used for long-term radioecological monitoring of the areas contaminated as a result of the Chernobyl accident. The coefficients of accumulation in 1996 remained high: in Paxillus trotomentosus at 1,180, in Lactarius helvus up to 855, in Hebeloma crustuliniforme at 514, in Xerocomus badius up to 256, in Boletus edulis up to 174; in 1998 in Xerocomus badius at 153, in Lactarius rufus at 111, in Amanita phalloides at 71; in 1999 in Paxillus involutus up to 928, in Suillus luteus at 766, in Sarcodon imbricatus at 238, in Cortinarius praestans at 187, in Amanita muscaria at 174, and in Xerocomus badius at 94.

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