Cumin allergy and anaphylaxis in a 17-year-old girl
What it found
A 17-year-old girl with asthma and other allergies had a severe reaction after breathing in cumin while her mother cooked.
She had reacted to cumin fumes since age three, and a skin test with cumin powder was strongly positive.
What they found
Studies in people
Reaction to cumin fumes
The girl had never touched or eaten cumin, but since age three she had itching, rhinitis and sneezing with face flushing after breathing in cumin while her mother cooked. At 17, while in the kitchen during cooking with cumin, she quickly had shortness of breath, rhinitis, generalized itching, flushing, and eye and lip swelling.
Hospital treatment
At home she was given levocetirizine (10 mg) and betamethasone (4 mg). In the emergency department she received intramuscular epinephrine (0.01 mg/kg/dose, maximum 0.5 mg), intravenous chlorphenamine (0.25 mg/kg/dose), hydrocortisone (10 mg/kg/dose) and saline, with complete remission within 3 to 4 hours.
Skin test result
A prick-by-prick test with cumin powder made from crushed dried seeds gave a strong positive response with a wheal of 9 mm. An oral challenge with cumin was not done because of the risk of anaphylaxis.
Spice allergy in children
The authors report this as the first case of anaphylaxis from breathing in cumin in a patient under 18. They note only one other pediatric case of anaphylaxis from breathing in a spice, a 6-year-old girl who had urticaria and respiratory symptoms after breathing in powdered American ginseng.
Cumin sensitization rates
In a study of 589 cases of food allergy, 26 of 81 children (32%) had a positive prick test for Apiaceae spices. Of the children tested for cumin, 20% were prick test positive, but no case of pediatric allergy to spice was confirmed in that case series.
Other findings
Diagnosis challenges
The authors say the diagnostic workup is often hard because a person may have eaten a mixture with several possible allergens, and spices and herbs under 2% of a finished product are often declared only generically as spices or herbs. They also note that blood tests for spices are missing and skin test reliability varies.
What the authors conclude
“Spice allergies should be suspected in patients with allergic manifestations occurring briefly after the consumption or inhalation of multiple different and unrelated foods.”
Also in their conclusions
- They advise that spice allergies should be suspected in patients with allergic signs shortly after eating or breathing in multiple different and unrelated foods.
- They say prick-by-prick tests with spice powders are helpful and should be recommended as part of the diagnostic workup to prevent misdiagnosis of idiopathic anaphylaxis.
- They call for further investigation to quantify the impact of spice allergies on the pediatric population, especially in today's multiethnic societies.
How it was done
Spice allergies are rarely documented in children, but spices are becoming more common in pre-packaged foods. The authors say current literature has contradictory findings about the risk of severe reactions in children.
The authors describe a 17-year-old girl of Moroccan origin living in Tuscany who was admitted to hospital for asthma, allergic rhinitis and IgE-mediated food allergy. They also reviewed published cases of spice allergy and anaphylaxis in children from January 1989 to March 2024.
What it can’t tell you
- This is a single case report, so it cannot show how common cumin allergy is in children or what happens in other people.
- The paper cannot show whether the girl's other allergies or asthma played a role in how severe her reaction was.
- The authors note that standardized case-control studies on skin tests with native spices are currently lacking, so the reliability of these tests is not fully known.
Who paid
- Conflicts
- MG reports personal fees from Sanofi and Thermo Fisher Scientific. SB reports speaker fees from Nutricia, Sanofi, and Firma, all outside of the submitted work. The remaining author(s) declared that this work was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The authors FM, MG, SB declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision.
- Authors work at
- Rho and Garbagnate Milanese Hospital, Italy; University of Florence, Italy; Meyer Children's Hospital IRCCS, Italy
The paper
- Title
- Cumin anaphylaxis and allergy to spices in pediatrics: a case report and literature review
- Type
- Case report
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Pessina B, Masiello E, Giovannini M, et al (2026). Cumin anaphylaxis and allergy to spices in pediatrics: a case report and literature review. Frontiers in immunology. doi:10.3389/fimmu.2026.1838155Free full textPubMed 42519315DOI
Summary written 26 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error