Lactarius sanguifluus

Lactarius sanguifluus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Fungi
Division: Basidiomycota
Class: Agaricomycetes
Order: Russulales
Family: Russulaceae
Genus: Lactarius
Species: L. sanguifluus
Binomial name
Lactarius sanguifluus
(Paulet) Fr. (1838)
Synonyms[1]

Hypophyllum sanguifluum Paulet (1811)
Lactifluus sanguifluus (Paulet) Kuntze (1891)
Lactarius sanguifluus
Mycological characteristics
gills on hymenium
cap is depressed
hymenium is decurrent
stipe is bare
spore print is tan
ecology is mycorrhizal
edibility: edible

Lactarius sanguifluus is an edible species of fungus in the Russulaceae family. It is distributed in Asia and Europe. When bruised or cut, the fruit bodies ooze a blood-red to purple latex which turns greenish upon exposure to air. The caps are carrot to reddish-brown with darker concentric zones, and become funnel-shaped in age. Fruit bodies are found scattered or in groups under conifers, especially Douglas fir.

Contents

Taxonomy

The fungus was first described scientifically by Jean-Jacques Paulet as Hypophyllum sanguifluum in 1811, and given its current name by Elias Magnus Fries in 1838.[2] It is classified in the section Dapetes of the genus Lactarius, along with other popular edible species L. deliciosus and L. deterrimus. In India, it is known locally as Lal chhatry and Khunyo.[3]

Habitat and distribution

Lactarius sanguifluus is widely distributed in Himachal Pradesh in India, where it has been noted to grow in mixed coniferous forests, usually under the fern Onychium contiguum.[3] In the Netherlands, it was found in calcareous dunes, growing in a warm, sunny and sheltered place at the edge of a woods dominated in pine species.[4] It has also been collected in Belgium,[5] and China.[6]

Edibility

The fruit bodies of Lactarius sanguifluus are edible. In India, young specimens are consumed along with L. deliciosus.[3]

Fruit bodies can bioaccumulate heavy metals, including toxic ones, from polluted soil. For this reason, consuming mushrooms harvested from potentially contaminated sites—such as near roadsides subject to heavy traffic—is not recommended.[7] In one Turkish study of various edible mushroom species, the fruit bodies of L. sanguifluus were determined to have accumulated high levels of zinc, manganese, nickel, cobalt, cadmium, and lead.[7]

Similar species

Lactarius vinosus has often been considered as a variety of L. sanguifluus, but morphological (especially macroscopic characters and spore-ornamentation) and molecular evidence (based on internal transcribed spacer-sequencing) has confirmed that they are separate species.[8]

Bioactive compounds

Lactarius sanguifluus contains a mixture of sterols. The predominant sterol is ergosterol (56.6% of total sterols), with lesser amounts of ergosterol derivatives, including ergost-7-en-3β-ol, ergosta-7,22-dien-3β-ol, and ergosta-5,7-dien-3β-ol.[9]

The latex contains sesquiterpenes pigments with a guaiane skeletons;[10] these include the compounds given the common names lactaroviolin and sangol. Some of these chemicals are thought to undergo enzymatic conversions when the fruit body becomes injured.[11]

References

  1. ^ "Species synonymy: Lactarius sanguifluus". Index Fungorum. CAB International. http://www.indexfungorum.org/Names/SynSpecies.asp?RecordID=229103. Retrieved 2010-05-03. 
  2. ^ Fries EM. (1838). Epicrisis Systematis Mycologici. Uppsala, Sweden: Typographia Academica. p. 341. http://books.google.com/books?id=bYdIAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA341. 
  3. ^ a b c Lakhanpal TN, Bhatt RP, Kaisth K. (1987). "Lactarius sanguifluus Fr. – an edible mushroom new to India". Current Science 56 (3): 148–9. 
  4. ^ Jalink L, Nauta M, Enzlin RS. (1997). "Lactarius sanguifluus new for Netherlands and other nice things". Coolia 40 (3): 188–90. 
  5. ^ Verbeken A, Walleyn R. (1998). "Orange-green milk cap in Belgium" (in Dutch). AMK Mededelingen 2: 37–44. 
  6. ^ Wang X-H. (2000). "A taxonomic study on some commercial species in the genus Lactarius (Agaricales) from Yunnan Province, China". Acta Botanica Yunnanica 22 (4): 419–27. 
  7. ^ a b Işıloğlu M, Yilmaz F, Merdivan M. (2000). "Concentrations of trace elements in wild edible mushrooms". Food Chemistry 73 (2): 169–75. doi:10.1016/S0308-8146(00)00257-0. 
  8. ^ Nuytincki J, Verbeken A. (2003). "Lactarius sanguifluus versus Lactarius vinosus: molecular and morphological analyses". Mycological Progress 2 (3): 227–34. doi:10.1007/s11557-006-0060-5. 
  9. ^ Cerri R, De Simone F, Senatore F. (1981). "Sterols from three Lactarius species". Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 9 (4): 247–8. doi:10.1016/0305-1978(81)90002-8. 
  10. ^ De Rosa S, De Stefano S. (1986). "Guaiane sesquiterpenes from Lactarius sanguifluus". Phytochemistry 26 (7): 2007–9. doi:10.1016/S0031-9422(00)81747-1. 
  11. ^ Sterner O, Bergendorff O, Bocchio F. (1988). "The isolation of a guaiane sesquiterpene from fruit bodies of Lactarius sanguifluus". Phytochemistry 28 (9): 2501–2. doi:10.1016/S0031-9422(00)98015-4.