Two Cases of Allergic Reaction to Royal Jelly Reported in Japan

Two Cases of Royal Jelly Allergy Provoked the Symptoms at the Time of Their First Intake
Arerugi, 2011 Jun 30;60(6):708-713

Two young women suffered from several symptoms after the intake of royal jelly for the first time.

According to the positive skin prick test reactions of raw royal jelly, royal jelly allergy was diagnosed. As the reasons why the symptoms appeared at the time of their first intake, we guessed the possibility that 1) they had been sensitized for royal jelly formerly, or 2) their symptoms were induced by the cross-reactivity between royal jelly and other allergens such as bee, honey and pollens.

As to our cases, no related allergens were found in one case, but in another case co-existance of mugwort allergy was suspected from the results of both skin prick test and specific IgE titers.

Originally royal jelly allergy has been regarded as class 1 allergic reaction developed by the sensitization of itself. But we speculated the possibility that there can also be cases of class 2 royal jelly allergy by the mechanism of cross-reaction with pollens.