BACKGROUND Maize is a member of the Poaceae family, capable of producing large amounts of pollen grains which may constitute important allergens in spring and summer. The aim of this study was to determine the protein content of maize pollen and its allergenicity in guinea pigs. METHODS The morphology of maize pollens was determined using light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The...

Cryopreservation of pollen from two ginseng species —Panax ginseng L. and P. quinquefolium L.—was studied. Freezing anthers that served as pollen carriers to –40C before liquid N storage affected pollen viability little after liquid N storage. Anther moisture content affected pollen viability significantly when stored in liquid N. The ideal anther moisture content to carry pollen for liquid N s...

Cypress pollen represents the primary cause of respiratory allergies in Mediterranean areas. Patients allergic to Cupressus sempervirens pollen (Cups) (CPA) can be discriminated on the basis of the immunoglobulin E (IgE) binding to a basic 14 kDa protein (BP14) or to high-molecular-weight (HMW) glycoproteins only. Specific IgE repertoires of two differentially exposed CPA cohorts, French and It...

Background: The cultivation of saffron is expanding through the southeast of Iran, and allergy to saffron pollen occurs in workers involved in processing this plant. We aimed to clone, sequence and express a major allergen involved in saffron pollen allergy, and to compare the recombinant with the natural allergen. Methods: The N-terminal amino acid sequence of Cro s 1, an allergen from saff...

Bee-collected pollen (bee pollen) is reported as a health food with a vast range of nutritional and therapeutic effects. Biochemical and hematological parameters in blood of rainbow trout treated to various concentrations of pollen (0.5, 2.5, 5, 10, 20 and 30 ppm) for 96 h were determined. The levels of total protein, creatinine, chloride and sodium in fish which exposed to different concentrat...

Asthma and allergic diseases cases have risen in recent decades. Plant pollen is considered as the main aeroallergen causing allergic reactions. According to available data, urban residents experience more respiratory allergies than rural residents mainly due to the interaction between chemical air pollutants and pollen grains. This interaction can occur through several mechanisms; chemical pol...

BACKGROUND The Phoenix dactylifera L. (date palm) is known for its traditional medicinal properties across the history of native population in Algerian Sahara. There is a large trend of consumption of date palm pollen preparations in many human infertility cases in our country. However, the validity has not been scientifically tested. There has been no direct scientific research on this applica...

Juvenile malnourishment affects learning and task performance in many species, and is well documented in mammals, but poorly studied in invertebrates. We examined the effect of nutritional stress during larval development on the longevity and task performance of honey bee (Apis mellifera) adults. Nutritional stress occurs naturally in honey bee colonies when pollen, which provides honey bees wi...

BACKGROUND Specific IgE antibodies against the low-molecular-weight carbohydrate antigen that does not bridge IgE molecules on mast cells are not associated with clinical symptoms. Cross reactivity can be determined in allergen-specific IgE detection assays when the carbohydrate structures between pollen allergens and plant derived food allergens are similar; in such cases, false positive resul...

air pollutants are reported to increase the specific ige response to allergens. clinical tests and immonoblotting were performed with pollen grains of spartium junceum. to identify allergens and to determine the effect of air pollutants on the allergenicity of the pollen extracts, the pollen extracts were injected intraperitoneally and intracutaneously to guinea pigs. injection of the pollen ex...