Artificial (137)Cs and (134)Cs and natural (40)K in sclerotia of Wolfiporia extensa fungus collected across of the Yunnan land in China.

Abstract

Dried sclerotia of Wolfiporia extensa has a long history of medicinal and grocery uses in Asia and elsewhere. This study aimed at providing and evaluating data on activity concentrations from artificial (137)Cs and (134)Cs radionuclides and natural (40)K in sclerotia collected across of the Yunnan land in China, which is generally lacking information. Sclerotia of W. extensa showed a low contamination with (137)Cs while (134)Cs was below limit of quantification. Estimated, the nominal value of effective dose (μSv) received by adult eating annually 50 g of the 'average' Yunnan's origin sclerotia contained in the 'Fuling jiabing' snack due to (137)Cs could be between < 0.00091 and 0.0047 ± 0.0007 μSv per capita and at < 0.000015 to 0.000078 ± 0.000012 μSv per kg of body mass, which is a very low exposure. This study has revealed also that sclerotia of W. extensa are characterized by very low content of (40)K (hence also of total K) when compared to fruiting bodies of many saprobic and mycorrhizal mushrooms.