Have you always wanted to forage for wild mushrooms but you were afraid of accidentally collecting a poisonous variety? A new crow-funded invention could change all that.
Most would-be mushroom hunters are generally discouraged from the hobby when introduced to the activity without the aid of an experienced mushroom hunter or guide in fear of consuming a poisonous species of mushroom. We would like to equip every mushroom hunter with an inexpensive easy to use test kit that can determine the presence of poisonous compounds within a suspected mushroom, and where applicable the concentration of such compounds.
William Hornibrook of Enfield, CT is running a GoFundMe campaign to raise funding for his Mushroom Test Kit. It detects toxins in mushroom samples, and is:
An inexpensive easy to use test kit that can determine the presence of poisonous compounds within a suspected mushroom and where applicable the concentration of such compounds within a specific mushroom.
The kits are available for as little as $60 (or you can donate less, if you’d just like to help out). There are several levels of funding.
Each test kit can be used for up to 25 samples, and can be used to determine the presence of the following toxins:
- Alpha & Beta-amanitin
- Orellanine
- Muscarine
- Gyromitrin
- Coprine
- Ibotenic acid and Muscimol
- Psilocybin and up to 37 analogs of psilocybin
- Arabitol
- Ergotamines
(More information about the toxins and their effects is on the GoFundMe page. It’s really very informative.)
The prototypes have already been developed and tested and are ready for production. The funding will be used for several things, including:
- Starting and running the website
- Opening a business account
- Procuring a small commercial place to assemble the kits
- Equipment/inventory/packaging costs
- State/local licenses, permits, and insurance
- Trademarking fees
- Marketing costs
This could be an exciting new beginning in the world of foraging for wild edibles.
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This article originally appeared at Examiner.com
1 thought on “New test kit detects toxins in wild mushrooms”
Fraser Bradbury
(August 13, 2017 - 11:38 am)Hi are these kits available in the UK,also do they detect toxins of all known poisonous fungi?