Original research articleMultielemental analysis of fruit bodies of three cultivated commercial Agaricus species

- ICP-OES screening of elemental composition of cultivated Agaricus was performed.
- Over 280 mushroom samples available on Polish market from 2007 to 2015 were analyzed.
- The lowest element variability and contaminant content was found for A. bisporus.
- A. subrufescens had the least standardized composition of elements.
- Toxic elements content in the mushrooms were generally considered low and safe.

The Agaricus genus comprises several commercially cultivated edible species, with A. bisporus being unambiguously the most important mushroom in this regard worldwide. The aim of study was to evaluate the content of 62 elements in fruit bodies of cultivated A. bisporus (brown and white strains), A. arvensis and A. subrufescens available on the Polish market during 2007-2015.Overall, 26 elements were detected in every sample, the content of 25 elements was above the concentration 0.01 mg kg−1 in only some percentage of samples, while contents of Au, Be, Co, Dy, Ga, Gd, Ge, Hf, Li, Sm, Tb and Yb were below 0.01 mg kg−1. As demonstrated using heatmaps, the variability of elemental composition was the lowest in A. bisporus and the greatest in A. subrufescens.Generally, A. bisporus was also characterized by the lowest content of potentially toxic elements such as Al, As and Cd (3.0 ± 1.2; 0.63 ± 0.37 and 0.36 ± 0.47 mg kg−1 dry matter, respectively). All in all, the present study offers the broadest insight to date into the elemental composition of Agaricus mushrooms cultivated for human consumption, and further indicates that cultivation of A. bisporus is highly standardized compared to other species. It is worth pointing out that toxic element content in the studied mushrooms was generally considered low and safe.