Hives after seeded bread, or an itchy mouth after a salad topped with pepitas? Pumpkin seeds are in breads, granola, protein bars and dressings, and they are not on the EU list of allergens that labels must highlight. Our test checks your blood for IgE antibodies to pumpkin seed, as part of 300 allergens and allergen components including sunflower seed, sesame, poppy seed and the tree nuts.
Pumpkin seeds come from Cucurbita pepo, a relative of courgette, melon and cucumber. Like other seeds, they store protein for the young plant, and seed storage proteins tend to hold up well to roasting and baking.
The specific pumpkin seed allergens are still poorly mapped. That makes a whole-seed extract the practical way to check for sensitisation today.
Pumpkin seed allergy is rare, but when it happens it is often more than a tingle. In a Turkish series of 25 children with pumpkin seed allergy, 64% had anaphylaxis, and most of the earlier published cases, mainly in adults, also involved reactions beyond the mouth. People describe hives, swelling, vomiting, wheezing or feeling faint soon after eating.
Swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, trouble breathing or feeling faint after eating is an emergency. Call 112 (EU) or your local emergency number. Do not wait for a test.
All of the children in that series ate pumpkin flesh without a problem. The allergy was to the seed. Most of them also had allergies to tree nuts or other seeds, and many were sensitised to watermelon seed too.
A positive result shows sensitisation, not that you will react. If you have never reacted to pumpkin seeds, do not cut them out on a result alone. If you have, take the result, together with your nut and seed results, to a doctor or allergist.
The lab measures IgE to a whole pumpkin seed extract. There are no single pumpkin seed proteins on the panel. Your lab report gives it a measured value and class, from Negative to Very high, next to sunflower seed, sesame, poppy seed and the tree nuts, so you can see the wider seed and nut pattern.
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One finger-prick sample checks IgE to 300 allergens and allergen components, from birch and peanut to cat and house dust mite. Post it to the lab, and about 5 days after it arrives you get a value for every one. Our plain-English guide shows you how to read them. €399 in total, €1.33 per allergen.
Yes. In a series of children with pumpkin seed allergy, all of them tolerated pumpkin flesh. The allergy sits in the seed proteins.
Dark, cold-pressed pumpkin seed oil is made from roasted seeds and can carry seed protein. Refined oils contain much less. If you have reacted to pumpkin seed before, ask your doctor what applies to you.
Often, yes. Many people with pumpkin seed allergy also react to tree nuts or other seeds. The panel measures all of them in one sample, so you see the full pattern rather than one result at a time.
