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JACI Highlights - January 2004
Allergy to eggplant
Eggplant (aubergine; Solanum melongena), an important vegetable of the nightshade family, is widely consumed throughout the world as a vegetable in various food preparations like curry, salad, gratin, soup, pizza, and parmigiana. Sometimes called the poor manıs meat, the egg-shaped fruit can be cooked or fried, and is often an ingredient in meat dishes. Adverse reactions to eggplant ingestion appear to be commonly experienced by a considerable number among the Indian population, with an incidence of 11%. This appears to be due to the high content of histamine in eggplant. ³Pramod and Venkatesh² (Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, January 2004) have described 3 cases (incidence: 0.5%) who had experienced allergic symptoms - hives and/or oral allergy reactions - within an hour or two after ingestion of foods containing eggplant. Allergy to eggplant was confirmed by positive skin prick test and the presence of allergen-specific IgE in the serum of allergic individuals. The authors have detected, by immunochemical analysis, the presence of 3 proteins (60, 64, and 71 kilodaltons in size) which have been identified as the allergens in eggplant. The 71 kilodalton protein allergen appears to be heat-stable. This is the first descriptive report of allergy to the ingestion of eggplant in the medical literature.
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