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Pistachio Early Childhood

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Around 6% of children and 3 to 4% adults suffer from adverse immune reaction to a food component (Scott et al, 2006). Commonly foods causing allergy reactions are cow’s milk, egg, peanut, soy and wheat. These types of foods will affect the early childhood and usually will disappear at the age of 3. In the case of peanut, tree nuts, shellfish and fish allergy the allergy reaction is more persistent (Fleischer et al, 2005). Tree nut hypersensitivity including pistachio are more common in the older group compared with children (Venter and Arshad, 2011). The allergic reaction towards pistachio has been described previously by Parra et al. (1993). Pistachio (Pistacia vere. L) is one of the members of the family of Anacardiaceae or cashew family. Pistachio trees can be found widely in Greece, Iran, Turkey, China and Egypt. Pistachio is commonly added to many foods; cereals, crackers, cookies, energy bars, frozen …show more content…

Proteins in any foods have the ability to cause allergenic sensitisation and the re-exposure of the proteins to sensitized individuals can cause allergic reactions (Taylor et al, 2002). Tree nuts including pistachio are the group listed in the big 8 or the major foods that can cause almost 90% of allergic reactions. Foods may contain both major and minor allergens. A characteristic of major allergens is that it can bind more than 50% of the serum IgE antibodies in patients with specific food allergy (Taylor et al, 2002). Vicilin (7S globulin), legumins (11S globulin) and 2S albumin are the major allergens of tree nuts which also can be found in pistachio. Vicilin (7S globulin) and legumins (11S globulin) belong to the cupin superfamily with molecular weights of 40 to 80 kDa (7S) and 40 to 20 kDa (11S) whereas 2S albumin is from prolamin superfamily with a molecular weight of ~15kDa (Breiteneder and Radauer, 2004). Vicilins and globulins are soluble in dilute saline solutions while albumin is

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