Abstract
Presented in this paper is result of the study of the bioconcentration potential of mercury (Hg) by Suillus luteus mushroom collected from regions within Central, Eastern, and Northern regions of Europe. As determined by cold-vapor atomic absorption spectroscopy, the Hg content varied from 0.13 ± 0.05 to 0.33 ± 0.13 mg kg−1 dry matter for caps and from 0.038 ± 0.014 to 0.095 ± 0.038 mg kg−1 dry matter in stems. The Hg content of the soil substratum (0–10 cm layer) underneath the fruiting bodies showed generally low Hg concentrations that varied widely ranging from 0.0030 to 0.15 mg kg−1 dry matter with mean values varying from 0.0078 ± 0.0035 to 0.053 ± 0.025 mg kg−1 dry matter, which is below typical content in the Earth crust. The caps were observed to be on the richer in Hg than the stems at ratio between 1.8 ± 0.4 and 5.3 ± 2.6. The S. luteus mushroom showed moderate ability to accumulate Hg with bioconcentration factor (BCF) values ranging from 3.6 ± 1.3 to 42 ± 18. The consumption of fresh S. luteus mushroom in quantities up to 300 g week−1 (assuming no Hg ingestion from other foods) from background areas in the Central, Eastern, and Northern part of Europe will not result in the intake of Hg exceeds the provisional weekly tolerance limit (PTWI) of 0.004 mg kg−1 body mass.
Highlights
Mercury (Hg) content in the Earth’s crust is considered at 0.08 mg kg−1 dry matter on the average (Rytuba 2003) and in forest topsoil in Poland is less than 0.08 mg kg−1 dm
Mercury at greater concentration is found in soils in the cinnabar (HgS) mining sites and sites with cinnabar mine wastes that are sometimes used for crops cultivation and where it can reach concentration, e.g., 120 mg kg−1 dm (Qiu et al 2012), and Hg at such sites can be accumulated by some mushrooms to extraordinary great concentration (Árvay et al 2014)
A fluctuation of Hg content both in caps and stipes of S. luteus foraged in the northern part of Poland over the years 1995–2010 (Tables 1 and 2) could be observed but with not a consistent tendency
Summary
Mercury (Hg) content in the Earth’s crust is considered at 0.08 mg kg−1 dry matter (dm) on the average (Rytuba 2003) and in forest topsoil in Poland is less than 0.08 mg kg−1 dm. In randomly collected samples of forest topsoil from the mercury belt region in Yunnan Province of China, the content of Hg was up to 3.4 mg kg−1 dm (Kojta et al 2015). A legal production of Hg from cinnabar is continuing somewhere as well as illegal artisanal manufacture (Qiu et al 2012). Another possibility is manufacture as by-product in gold and silver production and from sulfide deposits (Rytuba 2003). Many major uses of Hg declined and others legal are declining in recent years (UNEP 2013), while not declined amounts emitted
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