Fruit pectin and peach allergy tolerance in people
What it found
Pectin from citrus or apple helped more than half of peach-allergic people tolerate the allergen better.
It also lowered signs of inflammation compared to a placebo.
What they found
Studies in people
Allergen tolerance improved
More than 50% of patients taking either type of pectin could tolerate the allergen better. The authors describe this increase as significant.
Lower inflammation markers
Both pectin groups showed lower levels of various inflammatory proteins in the blood compared to the placebo group.
Gut bacteria changes
Citrus pectin raised levels of Bacteroides_H and Roseburia intestinalis bacteria. Apple pectin raised Bifidobacterium, Succinivibrio, and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii bacteria.
Gut chemical shifts
Both pectin treatments led to lower levels of branched short-chain fatty acids compared to the placebo. Pectin also changed the amounts of certain bile acids made by gut bacteria.
What the authors conclude
- They suggest that pectin treatment is a promising option for people with lipid transfer protein allergies.
- The authors report that both types of pectin were safe in their study.
How it was done
Scientists are interested in using pectins as prebiotics to help treat food allergies. The authors wanted to see how two types of pectin affect people allergic to peaches due to lipid transfer proteins.
The researchers gave peach-allergic patients either low-methoxyl citrus pectin, high-methoxyl apple pectin, or a placebo. They then checked their immune response, gut bacteria, and gut chemicals. The abstract does not say how many people took part or for how long.
What it can’t tell you
- We summarised it from the abstract only.
- The abstract does not state how many patients took part or how long they were followed.
- Because the sample size is not given, it is hard to judge how reliable these results are for all people with this allergy.
Who paid
- Conflicts
- Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
- Authors work at
- Hospital Regional Universitario de Málaga, Spain; CEU Universities, Spain; Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina (IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND), Spain
The paper
- Title
- Multi-omics analysis of a prebiotic intervention with pectin in lipid transfer proteins (LTPs) allergic patients
- Type
- Randomised controlled trial
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Abstract only
- Cite
- Gómez F, Pérez-Sánchez N, Macías-Camero A, et al (2025). Multi-omics analysis of a prebiotic intervention with pectin in lipid transfer proteins (LTPs) allergic patients. Carbohydrate polymers. doi:10.1016/j.carbpol.2025.124236PubMed 40973277DOI
Summary written 1 Oct 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error