ragweed

果物アレルギーには注意が必要です。

Everyday Exploration / Itchy mouth or throat? You could be allergic to fruit

Allergic reactions from eating fruit, such as swollen lips and an itchy feeling inside the mouth, are on the rise. These allergies are believed to be related to hay fever, and victims should take precautions.

Three years ago, a 31-year-old woman in Kanagawa Prefecture felt an itchy sensation in her mouth and at the back of her throat after she ate an apple. The itching subsided after about 15 minutes. When the same reaction occurred after she ate peaches and cherries, she decided to visit a hospital for an examination. She learned that she was allergic to several types of fruit.

“As I had always eaten fruit, I never imagined they would be the cause of my symptoms. Now, I avoid fruit likely to cause an allergic reaction,” the woman said.

Motohiro Ebisawa, director of allergy research at Sagamihara National Hospital in Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture, said: “Allergic reactions caused by fruit are increasing. People who have hay fever are more likely to develop them, so it is believed they are related.”

The woman also suffers from hay fever. Allergies that have symptoms such as itching in the mouth or throat that appear within five minutes of eating and drinking are also called oral allergy syndrome, which can develop in both children and adults.

Some fruit and vegetables contain proteins with structures similar to hay fever allergens. When people with hay fever eat them, they sometimes develop symptoms. In many cases, fruit allergies develop several years after a person suffers hay fever. The reason for this remains unclear.

The type of fruit that induces allergy symptoms in a person depends on the type of plant that causes them hay fever. People allergic to pollen from such trees as alder or birch in the birch family tend to develop symptoms after consuming fruit from the rose family, such as apples, peaches and cherries. For ragweed, the problematic fruit are melons and watermelons. Cedar pollen allergies affect a large number of people and symptoms can appear when tomatoes are consumed. But the number of reported cases is low, for some obscure reason.

以下省略

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0003064019

今回取り上げるのはragweedです。『ライトハウス英和辞典』（第5版　研究社）で調べてみますと、名詞で「ぶたくさの類（花粉は花粉症　hay fever を引き起こす）」とありました。ぶたくさの類という意味ではよくわからなかったので、手持ちの電子辞書に内蔵されている『ジーニアス英和辞典』（第4版　大修館書店）でも調べてみますと、「（植）クワモドキ（キク科ブタクサ属、花粉はhay fever の原因）」とありました。LDOCEには “a North American plant that produces a substance which causes hay fever” とありました。どのような植物なのかをWikipediaで調べてみました。クワモドキは3つに切れ込んだ葉の形からこのように呼ばれるそうです。オオブタクサともいうそうです。ブタクサよりも草丈が高く、2〜4メートルほどになるとのことでした。(aqua)