Mineral element levels in wild edible mushrooms from Yunnan, China

Ten species of wild edible mushrooms (Boletus griseus, Boletus speciosus, Lactarius hygrophoroides, Leucopaxillus giganteus, Macrocybe gigantea, Melanoleuca arcuata, Morchella deliciosa, Mycena haematopus, Pulveroboletus ravenelii, and Tricholoma matsutake) collected from Yunnan province of China, were analyzed for ten mineral elements (calcium, chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, sodium, and zinc) contents using ICP-AES. The minimum and maximum element contents of mushrooms were determined as milligrams per kilograms dry weight for Ca (38-470), Cr (0.45-6.3), Co (0.29-2.3), Cu (13-58), Fe (22-510), Mg (84-550), Mn (1.4-70), K (1,300-4,600), Na (190-670), and Zn (16-160). The mushrooms species with the highest levels of mineral elements were B. griseus for K and Na, P. ravenelii for Cu, M. deliciosa for Mn, L. giganteus for Cr and Fe, M. gigantea for Ca, Mg and Zn, T. matsutake for Co. These results demonstrate that the mineral element contents in mushrooms are considerably species dependent and affected by environmental factors.