Mineral constituents in common chanterelles and soils collected from a high mountain and lowland sites in Poland

This paper reported the results of the determination of Ag, Al, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, P, Pb, Rb, Sr and Zn in Common Chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius) Fr. and surface soil layer (0?C10 cm) underneath the fruiting bodies. Mushrooms and soils were collected from a lowland site in the Hel Peninsula (Baltic Sea coast) and a high mountain site in the Tatra Mountains. The trace elements were determined using validated method and inductively coupled plasma ?? atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). Common Chanterelles that emerged at sites poor in mineral nutrients podzols of the Hel Peninsula forests efficiently bioconcentrated several essential trace elements (K, P, Co, Cu, Mn, Na, Zn), while the abundance of those elements in carpophores was around half less compared to specimens from Zakopane region and which emerged in soils much richer in minerals. Common Chanterelles collected at two spatially distant background areas in Poland were only weakly contaminated with metals such as Ag, Cd, Hg and Pb. The maximum tolerable Cd and Pb contents of certain cultivated mushrooms are regulated in the European Union by law and these hazardous metals in C. cibarius were far below tolerance limits set.