Abstract
This study investigated the Hg concentrations in Yellow-cracking Boletes Xerocomus subtomentosus mushrooms and beneath soils collected from the wild at twelve sites across Poland. This mushroom species has some potential to bioconcentrate Hg in the fruiting bodies, and the amount of Hg sequestered, depending on geographical location, can pose health risk to consumers. The values of Hg bioconcentration factor (BCF) varied for the sites between 0.80 ± 0.20 and 17 ± 12 in caps and 0.50 ± 0.10 and 7.9 ± 6.6 in stipes of fruiting bodies but decreased as soil Hg content increased from 72 ± 32 to 570 ± 130 ng/g dry weight. The specimens collected from minerals rich area of Złotoryja contained the highest Hg concentration, which reached 630 ± 400 in caps and 420 ± 260 ng/g dw in stipes, while the lowest observed Hg concentrations at the other sites were 72 ± 32 and 57 ± 13 ng/g, for cap and stipes respectively. Available literature data on Hg in Yellow-cracking Boletes was also up-dated.
Acknowledgments
This study has been supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education under grant no. DS-8130-4-0092-1.