Green bean anaphylaxis linked to a 10-kDa protein
What it found
A 20-year-old woman had a severe allergic reaction after eating cooked green beans.
Lab tests pointed to a protein of about 10 kDa in cooked beans as the likely trigger.
What they found
Studies in people
Reaction to cooked beans
The woman had itching of the tongue and throat, chest and neck itching, generalized heat, swelling of the eyelids, lips and tongue, clouding of consciousness, throat tightness and trouble breathing a few minutes after eating green beans cooked with garlic. She recovered within a few hours after emergency treatment with adrenaline, corticosteroids and antihistamines.
Tolerance to other legumes
After the episode, she tolerated nuts, garlic, chickpeas, peas, soy and other vegetables well. She avoided red and green beans.
Skin test results
The prick-prick test with raw green beans gave a 15-mm wheal and with cooked green beans a 10-mm wheal. Itchy bumps also appeared on her chest and upper arms and went away in 2 hours with antihistamines.
Animal and lab studies
Proteins in raw vs cooked
In lab tests, her IgE recognized several proteins of 25 to 75 kDa in raw bean extract. In cooked beans, only one protein of about 10 kDa was recognized.
No reaction to white or red beans
Her IgE did not recognize proteins from white bean or red bean extracts, showing she was not sensitized to those.
What the authors conclude
- They report a case of anaphylaxis caused by green beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) due to a 10-kDa protein, with tolerance to other legumes.
- They suggest this points to a new phenotype.
How it was done
The authors wanted to show a new pattern in people who have anaphylaxis from green beans, since allergy to different legumes is common and cross-reactivity between beans is frequent.
They reported one 20-year-old woman who needed emergency treatment for anaphylaxis after eating cooked green beans. They did skin prick-prick tests with raw and cooked green beans and lab tests on her blood, including SDS-PAGE and IgE-western blot, using extracts of white beans, red beans, and raw and cooked green beans.
What it can’t tell you
- This is a single case report, so it cannot show how common this pattern is or whether it applies to other people.
- The patient refused oral challenge tests with other foods, so the tolerance to other legumes was not confirmed by those tests.
Who paid
- Conflicts
- The authors declared no potential conflict of interest with respect to research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
- Authors work at
- Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío, Spain
The paper
- Title
- Anaphylaxis due to green beans ( Phaseolus vulgaris ): a new phenotype?
- Type
- Case report
- Evidence
- Studies in people · animals · lab
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Rivero EM, Castaño MP, Romero IMD, Martínez MJM, Losa FP (2025). Anaphylaxis due to green beans ( Phaseolus vulgaris ): a new phenotype?. Allergologia et immunopathologia. doi:10.15586/aei.v53i1.1176Free full textPubMed 39786870DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error