• news

• News in Israel

• Events in Israel

Pastoral entertainment is gaining momentum, and in Israel the dangers of picking mushrooms are being discovered

The corona and rain that preceded this year intensified the hobby that has become popular in recent years.

However, the public's lack of knowledge on the subject leads to a fivefold increase in cases of poisoning compared to two years ago, and damage to the growing environment of the fungus.

An expert on the subject calls for a "ceasefire" and legislation: "An important resource for human beings"

Tags

• mushrooms

• extinction

• The environment

• poisoning

• Collection

Eli Ashkenazi

Saturday, January 16, 2021, 2:15 p.m.

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on general

• Share on general

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

0 comments

• Rabbis call for a ban on staying in Corona hotels: "Danger ...

• More than two million Israelis have been vaccinated against Corona; ...

• Clashes in a demonstration in Nazareth against Netanyahu's visit to the center ...

• The world's largest vaccination campaign: India has started vaccinating ...

• Report: 23 killed in Israeli attack against militias ...

• Yehuda Sternfeld, Holocaust survivor and initiator of the "Netzer ..."

• "A public figure should be given": Acting Commissioner and Minister of Defense ...

• Protest against violence in the Arab sector: 4 detainees in demonstration ...

• A ceremony in Tehran to mark the one-year anniversary of Suleimani's assassination (Photo: ...

• Netanyahu in Nazareth offers the Arabs of Israel a new era: whoever thinks ...

• USA: Joe Biden Introduces Financial Aid Program for Coping ...

Mushroom collection in the Ben Shemen forest (Photo: Ziv Reinstein, Editing: Noa Levy)

The rain that came earlier this year, combined with the closures imposed by the corona plague, intensified this year a phenomenon that has also gained momentum in recent years: mushroom picking has become a popular hobby.

In the open areas and in the woods you can see more and more people walking with their eyes turned to the ground, and their purpose is to identify mushrooms that they will pick up in a basket or bag in their hands.

But this picturesque spectacle, which compares the scent of a foreign country to a region of sweat that sweats most days of the year, also has prices that humans and fungi themselves pay. Right.

More on Walla!

NEWS

He climbed from poverty to the mayor of Afula.

After 20 years, his vision is now being realized

To the full article

More on Walla!

NEWS

• It's time to close BZN

• Plan approved for construction of thousands of housing units in the Jerusalem Conservation Ridge: "High environmental price"

• Istanbul is open - it's time for a natural and permanent solution to male pattern baldness

More and more people are walking in the woods with their eyes down.

Ornia Mushroom (Photo: Official Website, Gilad Abohav)

Mushrooms in Israel are not defined as a protected plant, and in view of the fear of the disappearance of various species, says Prof. Sgula Mutzafi, an expert and mushroom researcher, that the Mushroom Protection Law should be enacted.

"I believe like many of the mushroom researchers in the country that the Mushroom Protection Act should be enacted, like the law prohibiting picking wildflowers, or alternatively, at the very least, the appropriate authorities should oversee the uncontrolled collection."

She notes that "Today many people pick wild mushrooms. A trip to the forest to search for the mushrooms is welcome, but there are pickers who pick the mushrooms without any consideration of having to keep an active population of mushrooms in the environment. Mushrooms are a very important natural resource for man and environment. The tumor and not to empty it of the fungi that grew in it. "

"The edible mushrooms are actually the fungal reproductive bodies, where the spores that are supposed to disperse in the environment and produce the new generations of fungal colonies are located," she explains.

At the same time, she urges the collecting public to exercise caution in order to avoid cases of poisoning.

"At least monitor the collection."

Pretty sticky vaginal fungus (Photo: Official website, Gilad Abohav)

"The result of ignorance - poisoning."

Olive Umbilical Cord (Photo: Official Website, Dr. Dalia Levinson)

Mutzafi has been involved in applied mycology (fungal function and use) at the Miguel Research Institute for more than three decades.

"Some of the mushrooms in nature are good for food, and some are very toxic, because the mushroom kingdom is generally known for producing many and varied natural substances, including those that improve health and those that can be very harmful."

She warns that "for those who do not specialize in mushroom identification, do not come in contact with the mushrooms, do not pick and certainly do not eat. Caution is required, because in recent years there has been an increase in the number of mushroom pickers without prior knowledge or intention, and the result is poisoning."

"Non-experts should not come in contact with the fungus."

Prof. Mutzafi (Photo: Official Website, Miguel Research Institute)

Towards the end of December, the National Poison Information Center at Rambam Hospital in Haifa reported that this month alone, the National Center treated 43 cases of fungal poisoning collected in the wild, compared with six cases in December 2019 and 26 cases in December 2018.

During 2020, the National Center The information on poisonings includes 63 cases of poisoning, compared with 13 and 44 cases in 2018 and 2019, respectively. The National Center also reported that of all cases treated in recent months within the center, six developed moderate to severe poisoning, compared with three in the corresponding quarter last year.

43 cases of fungal poisoning in December alone.

Handsome sticky vagina (Photo: Official Website, Dr. Ephraim Levinson)

As is well known, edible mushrooms are also grown as an agricultural-industrial crop.

According to Mutzafi, "Edible mushrooms are an important industry in the expanding industrial agriculture, in the world and in Israel. In the past, the traditional mushroom cultivation focused on Southeast Asia, but industrial cultivation, especially of champignon mushrooms, broke out in Western countries."

She adds that "mushroom growing is a knowledge-intensive crop, and growers need a great deal of knowledge and experience, in order to be successful and grow healthy mushrooms, at a well-timed and inexpensive ripening time."

She notes that "there are various aspects of mushroom growing, such as the use of new growing technologies, the introduction of new species for growing, diseases and their eradication, and a focus on the topic now at the forefront of mushroom research: medical aspects of edible mushrooms such as fungal antioxidants, "Antibacterial activity, and activity against immunosuppressive diseases, and the effect of fungal extracts on bone building."

Mutzafi herself researches topics such as growing edible mushrooms, producing natural substances from mushrooms, biological decomposition of pollutants by mushrooms, and more.

Today, research in her laboratory focuses on the ecology and production of natural substances in fungi, mainly of the morel fungus (in Hebrew - gemzutzit).

This is a very popular edible mushroom among connoisseurs and accordingly a very high price: between 450-100 dollars per kilogram.

"Industrial growth has erupted mainly in the West."

Cultured Coconut, Champagne (Photo: Official Website, Purple Flooded)

The mushrooms that are grown as an agricultural-industrial crop in Israel and that are known to us as consumers are the white champignon mushroom and the brown portabello mushroom.

There are other mushrooms that are grown in the country today, such as the Jordan Forest Mushroom (Florotus), the Shiitake Mushroom and others.

The popularity of mushrooms, both from nature and from supermarket shelves, also rises in view of the understanding that nutritionally the mushrooms that are good to eat have unique nutritional values ​​that are considered beneficial to the health of the body.

Some fungi even produce specific substances that also affect the healing of diseases.

Mushrooms contain a high concentration of proteins, antioxidants - antioxidants, dietary fiber, minerals and vitamins.

And they are very poor in fats and calories.

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on general

• Share on general

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

0 comments