Mushrooms are the fruiting body of the fungi and known to cause mycetismus, mushroom poisoning. Protoplasmic poisons are found in the Amanita species, they are cyclic peptides that mobilise hepatic glucose. In man they cause blood pressure to fall, a decrease in sugar and sodium chloride content of the blood, residual blood urea to increases, potassium deficiency and leukocytosis. If the patient survives this first stage a hepatomegally, or enlargement of the liver occurs, alongside cramps, dilation of the pupils, albuminia, haemoglobinuria and oligouria. The ultimate fate is death, usually caused by acute hepatic necrosis.
Some mushrooms also contain compounds with a neurological effect.
Inocybe contains muscarine which exerts a specific peripheral parasympathetic activity, due to its effect on the post ganglionic parasympathetic effector sites. Symptoms of poisoning appear fifteen to thirty minutes after ingestion causing irregular pulse, constricted pupils and asthmatic breathing. Pilzatropine' is an unidentified compound found in A. muscaria. That produces symptoms on the CNS similar to those induced by the drug atropine. It induces restlessness, confusion, disrupts vision and causes muscle spasms.