Poison Fire Coral

Safety first. Poison fire coral is a poisonous wild fungus. Case reports describe it harming the blood-forming bone marrow, the skin, the gut, the kidneys and other organs, and some people have died. Reports describe symptoms that start within hours in some cases, and after weeks of repeated tea-drinking in others. [3][4][5] If anyone may have eaten a wild or unknown fungus, or drunk a tea made from one, call Poison Help now at 1-800-222-1222 (US), even if there are no symptoms. A poison center says not to wait for symptoms, because they can be delayed and serious damage may occur before they appear. [1] Call 911 if the person collapses, has a seizure, has trouble breathing or cannot be woken. [2] Outside the US, call your local poison centre or emergency number; see poison help by country. This page gives no identification help. See mushroom poisoning: warning signs and urgent help and the mushroom safety quick reference.

The short version. This is not a food, not a medicine and not a supplement. Authors of case reports call it highly toxic and say a very small amount can be fatal. [3][6] Several patients in Korea had boiled it and drunk the water, and one of them died, so boiling did not make it safe. [3][5] There is no known antidote; the cases describe supportive care. [3][6]

What it is

Podostroma cornu-damae is a fungus reported in Japan and Korea, where it has caused poisoning. [3][5] The Wikidata record also lists Podostroma alutaceum as a related species; the lab data file we received lists no compounds for either name. [8] The reports we read describe the poison as trichothecene mycotoxins, a group of fungal toxins. [3][4][6]

Do not identify wild fungi from text, photos or apps

Even very experienced gatherers can find it hard to know whether a mushroom is safe, according to a poison control centre. [1] In a 2026 study of 12 phone apps and websites, the best tool still failed to give a correct identification in nearly 15% of tests, and the weakest were wrong in most. The authors concluded that such tools cannot be trusted for life-or-death identification. [7] A Korean report notes that the young fungus can look like the reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) when it is immature, which is how a piece ended up in a household's collection; we repeat this as a warning, not a way to tell them apart. [3] Only buy mushrooms and supplements from a shop, never from a basket you found, and never drink a "tea" made from wild fungus. See cooking edible mushrooms safely.

The toxin and how it acts

• Trichothecene mycotoxins. A Korean report summarising earlier Japanese chemistry says that in 2001 researchers isolated several macrocyclic trichothecenes from the fruiting body, including roridin E, satratoxin H and related forms. [3][5] A second report says these were deadly to mice within a day. [5]
• How it acts. The authors of one report say the exact mechanism of toxicity is still unknown. [3] We found no source we could open that explains it, so we do not.
• Cooking. The Korean cases with boiled fungus included a death, so boiling is not a safe preparation. [3][5] Japanese deaths followed fungus soaked in alcohol or fried. [3][5] None of the papers tested what heat does to the toxin.
• Small amounts. The authors of the 2013 Yonsei report say that even a small amount can be fatal. [3]

Symptom timeline

Reports differ, because the cases differ: one large single exposure, or weeks of daily tea.

1. Within hours, after a meal. A 73-year-old Korean man who ate boiled fungus had nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, dry mouth and low blood pressure about 3 hours later. He seemed to improve until day 3, then suddenly developed severe breathing failure on day 4, and died on day 13 after lung, kidney, liver and bone marrow failure. [5]
2. After days to weeks of daily tea. Two couples in Korea drank water in which the fungus had been boiled, or tea, daily for 12 days to over a month. Reported signs included fever, peeling skin on the palms and soles, hair loss, very low blood counts (all three kinds of blood cells), and infection. [3][4]
3. Typical course described by the 2013 authors. Diarrhoea, vomiting and dehydration, then low blood pressure, very little urine and altered consciousness; later low white cells and platelets, skin peeling and hair loss, and often death from multiple organ failure. [3]

Treatment as described by medical sources

• No curative treatment is known. [3]
• Supportive care in the cases we read included fluids, antibiotics, blood-cell growth factor (G-CSF), platelet transfusion and, in severe cases, ventilation and kidney dialysis. [3][4][5][6] Of the six patients in these reports, four recovered and two died. One report mentions a recovery after dialysis-type filtering, plasma exchange, G-CSF and large-volume fluids. [3]
• Do not try home treatments. Follow the poison centre or the clinicians. See what to do first for any poisoning and what to tell Poison Help when you call.
• Tell the doctors exactly what was eaten or drunk, over how long, and who shared it. A poison center suggests saving a piece of the fungus if possible. [1]

What studies report

These are case reports. They over-represent severe cases and cannot give a death rate; we found no population figure we could open.

Which medicinal fungi it has been mistaken for

This is the history of mistakes, not a way to avoid them. Korean reports say the fungus resembles the reishi (Ganoderma lucidum) and cordyceps, two well-known "health foods", and that patients gathered it from the wild and made tea or boiled extracts. [3][4][6] This site's reishi and cordyceps pages cover those products. Because wild fungi can be mixed up, the site's view is to buy only supplements from makers who publish test results (see mushroom testing and certificates of analysis). Cultivated, tested products are a different thing from gathered fungus. The deadliest edible-looking mix-up on this site is covered on the death cap page, which has a different toxin and a different course.

Epidemiology

• The cases we found are from Japan and Korea. [3][5]
• A Korean report in 2013 called its case the first documented case of this poisoning in Korea. [3]
• We found no recent count for any country that we could open. Treat all counts as partial.

Lab data and chemistry

Wikidata (the open knowledge base behind the LOTUS natural-products project) lists no compounds for Podostroma cornu-damae or P. alutaceum in the file we received (Wikidata Q864070 and Q10546466). [8] A listing would mean "reported in at least one study of this species". This section describes a poison. It shows nothing about health benefits.

A. What the laboratory literature reports in this fungus

All three are quoted second-hand from the 2001 isolation work, which we did not open. [3][5]

B. Measured values

Patient blood counts in the case reports are measurements of people, not of the fungus, so they are not listed as lab values for the fungus.

C. What the numbers do and do not mean

• No amount of this fungus can be called safe; one report says a small amount can be fatal. [3]


• Absence of a measured toxin number is a gap in our reading, not a sign of lower danger.


• None of the tests used in these reports confirmed the toxin in the patient; identification was by the fungus itself. [3][5]


• Nothing here suggests any use as food or a supplement.

Related pages

• Mushroom poisoning: warning signs and urgent help
• Mushroom safety quick reference: emergency and who to call
• Reishi and cordyceps
• Death cap
• Cooking edible mushrooms safely
• Plant and mushroom poisoning