Tmoato industrial derivatives: mallardo reaction and residual allergenicity.

Methods The thermal damage index in all tomato derivatives was determined chromatographically by detecting furosine level, which allowed us to divide the commercial products in low, medium and highly thermally damaged. SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting on samples of these three groups was performed. We used the patients’ sera from our previous study after obtaining informed consent. Five patients had a documented positive history of severe allergic reactions to tomato, fresh or household cooked or industrially processed, and were exclusively reacting to tomato LTP. Other five patients experienced oral allergy syndrome (OAS) grade I-II when eating fresh tomatoes and were sufferings from birch pollinosis and not reacting to tomato LTP. Results In LTP-positive patients, no statistical difference between chemically peeled and raw extracts was detected by means of skin tests. Any grade of thermal damage (low, medium or high furosine index) induced a significant reduction in tomato allergenicity in birch pollen-positive LTP-negative patients, while none of the investigated technological processes reduced the IgEbinding to tomato LTP in LTP-positive patients.