Puffball mǎ bó · 马勃

Safety. Two practical cautions. First, identification: a puffball is only edible or medicinal when the flesh is pure white and firm throughout, and immature Amanita mushrooms — some of them deadly — look like a puffball from the outside and show a hidden cap shape when cut. Never use a foraged fungus that has not been cut open and checked by someone competent. Second, inhaling large amounts of mature puffball spores is documented to cause lycoperdonosis, a hypersensitivity reaction with coughing, breathlessness and lung shadowing on imaging. People with asthma, allergies or lung disease should not handle large quantities of dried spores. Applied to a wound it is a traditional first-aid dust, not a substitute for cleaning the wound or for assessment of a deep, dirty or puncture wound — and tetanus prophylaxis is a medical matter, not a herbal one.