Honey allergy is rare in patients sensitive to pollens.

We challenged in a double-blind manner 46 pollen-allergic patients with 30 g of honey and another 32 patients with a placebo (30 g of syrup). Minor, mostly subjective, symptoms were seen in or reported by 26% of those challenged with honey and 41% of those challenged with placebo. In no case could the symptoms with certainty be related to the challenge. Eight commercially available honeys were examined for allergen activity by RAST inhibition and immunospot methods. Both pollen and insect allergen activity was found in all honeys, and they could cause allergic reactions. However, no serious or even obvious reaction occurred in pollen-allergic patients challenged with honey.

Skin prick tests and in vitro immunoassays with native spices and spice extracts.

BACKGROUND: Skin prick tests of native spices (commercial powdered spices) are common in patients with allergy to birch or mugwort pollen. Clinical symptoms from spices are infrequent but occasionally severe. OBJECTIVE: To compare the skin prick test results with native spices and spice extracts and to determine the clinical relevance of test material. METHODS: Skin prick tests with the native spices coriander, caraway, paprika, cayenne, mustard, and white pepper were made twice at 2-month to 2.9-year intervals in 49 patients. During the latter time, tests were also made with spice extracts and spice-specific serum IgE was measured. RESULTS: The reproducibility of skin test results with native spices was 67% to 100%. Spice extracts, except white pepper, elicited positive skin test reactions in half those with positive reactions to native spices. Higher specific IgE concentrations (> or = 3.5 PRU/mL) were seen in cases where the skin tests were positive to the corresponding spices with 5% extracts of > 8 kD Mw. Three-fourths of the patients with positive skin tests to native spices were positive to birch pollen and one-half to a vegetable. Mild clinical symptoms from spices were reported by one-third. CONCLUSIONS: Spice allergens partly crossreact with those of pollens and vegetables. A minority of spice allergens may give clinical symptoms. The > 8-kD 5% extracts may be relevant skin prick test materials for identifying patients at risk of developing severe symptoms from ingested spices.

Immediate skin test reactions to spices.

Scratch tests with common spices were performed in 1,120 atopic and 380 non-atopic patients. Positive skin test reactions were seen almost exclusively in atopics. Curry and paprika produced reactions most frequently, and when the components of curry were tested separately, coriander, caraway, cayenne and mustard were responsible for the vast majority of the skin reactions. A high correlation between positive skin test reactions to spices, especially to curry and its components, and tree pollens, fruits and vegetables was demonstrated, suggesting that there may be a group of cross allergies. Clinical symptoms from ingested spices were noticed by five patients. When small amounts of spices were spread on the oral mucosa, local reactions, especially in the mouth and nasopharynx, were found in 14 out of 35 unselected patients with positive skin test reactions. Peroral challenges with spices in gelatin capsules were negative in 20 nonselected patients.

Allergy to grass juice.

Crushed, fresh grass did not produce positive skin reactions in 149 patients with grass pollen allergy, six of whom suffered from rhinitis and conjunctival discharge while cutting grass. An additional patient without an allergy to grass pollens but with clear-cut symptoms from newly cut grass showed a negative result in the scratch-chamber test and in the scrubbing test.