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Review
. 2021 Mar 16;9(3):57.
doi: 10.3390/toxics9030057.

Direct and Indirect Neurotoxic Potential of Metal/Metalloids in Plants and Fungi Used for Food, Dietary Supplements, and Herbal Medicine

Peter S Spencer  1   2 , Valerie S Palmer  1
Affiliations
Review

Direct and Indirect Neurotoxic Potential of Metal/Metalloids in Plants and Fungi Used for Food, Dietary Supplements, and Herbal Medicine

Peter S Spencer et al. Toxics. .

Abstract

Plants and mushrooms bioconcentrate metals/metalloids from soil and water such that high levels of potentially neurotoxic elements can occur in cultivated and wild species used for food. While the health effects of excessive exposure to metals/metalloids with neurotoxic potential are well established, overt neurological disease from prolonged ingestion of contaminated botanicals has not been recognized. However, the presence of metal elements may affect levels of botanical neurotoxins in certain plants and mushrooms that are established causes of acute and chronic neurological disease.

Keywords: cassava; grasspea; heavy metals; morels; neurodegeneration; soil and water pollution.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Monomethylhydrazine (left), gyromitrin (center), and agaritine (right). Source: PubChem, National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/, accessed on 14 March 2021.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Lathyrus sativus (grasspea), an annual legume cultivated in arid and semiarid areas, has attractive flowers (A,B) and yields nutritious seed (C). The seeds are a rich source of protein and starch (D). Reproduced with permission from Xu et al. [68], doi:10.3390/ijms18030526, accessed on 23 February 2021.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Structure of β-N-oxalylamino-L-alanine. Source: PubChem, National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicine https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/, accessed on 14 March 2021.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Manihot esculenta Crantz. leaves (left) and tubers (right).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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