The mutagenicity of some edible mushrooms in the Ames test.

The mutagenic activity of five wild and two cultivated species of edible mushrooms was studied in the Ames Salmonella/microsome test system. The wild mushrooms tested were four species of the genus Lactarius (L. necator, L. torminosus, L. helvus and L. rufus) and bolete (Boletus edulis). The cultivated species were champignon (Agaricus bisporus) and shiitake (Lentinus edodes). All the mushrooms were mutagenic to tester strains sensitive to base-pair substitution mutagens, and L. necator, L. rufus and B. edulis also had some frameshift activity. Metabolic activation was not required and the mutagenic activity could be detected even in boiled mushroom extracts. After fractionation with organic solvents (ethanol followed by diethyl ether) the activity was recovered in the ether phase as well as the aqueous phase in the case of L. necator, but remained in the aqueous phase of the A. bisporus and Lentinus edodes extracts.