Ruary wrote:
> the outer layer of pollen is sporopollenin not chitin, it seems to very
> durable as that is what is used in palynology.

The allergens don't necessarily have to be on the inside of the 
pollen coat.  When a pollen grain lands on an anther, things start to 
happed due to the nature (possible allergens?) of the external coat 
reacting with the receptors on the anther.

Bill wrote:
> Agree with your post that it does not do anything for allergy relief, but
> bees will collect pollen from wind pollinated plants,

These tend to be plants that do not seem to be the primary cause of 
allergies.  Ragweed, grasses and some tree species would account for 
over 90% of pollen based hayfever causes.  While some of these 
(mostly only trees) may find their way into honey, it is a rather hit 
and miss affair. i.e. the effect would only work occassionaly.  Yet 
the effect is said to consistently work.

Brian Wrote:
> In northern USA many folks have allergies to tree pollen and these have
> been verfied by doctors doing sensistivity testing.  Allergy season is not
> just August around here when the ragweed is

But there is good research indicating that tree pollen produced on 
one side of the USA can be found in levels high enough to cause 
allergies half a continent or more away.  i.e.the "local" aspect of 
all this does not seem to fit the known facts.

Lloyd wrote:
> I tell customers that all is know is that regular consumption of small
> amounts of local pollen (in honey or otherwise) 'works'.  I don't know how
> it works, and for all I know it might be a placebo effect.  But there is
> absolutely no question, in my opinion, that it works.  And that is what is
> important.

A lot of people believe this, and either it is a wonderful marketing 
job, or there is in fact a mechanism at work that has not been 
completely explained.   This is what interests me as the current 
explanation does not fit the facts - which leads to.... what else 
could it be?

e.g. most honey in the USA is packed as liquid honey.  To do this 
(even with honies that are high in glucose and crystallize rapidly) 
most commercial honies have to be heat treated and filtered to remove 
possible crystallisation sites (pollen) to keep them liquid. 

Most "local" honey is likely to be short turn around (freshly packed) 
and so can be minimally processed. i.e.  not have the pollen filtered 
out of it.  Perhaps the effect is simply due to "local" honey being a 
source of a range of pollen species that collectively helps 
desensitize one against a range of allergies?  And perhaps one 
doesn't have to necessarily have the target species in the mix.  Like 
cow pox had a protective effect against small pox.  And on that note 
of wild unsupported speculation.......

Any other thoughts?

Cheers,
Peter._________________________________________________________
Airborne Honey Ltd., Pennington St, PO Box 28, Leeston, 
New Zealand Fax 64-3-324-3236,  Phone 64-3-324-3569  
http://www.airborne.co.nz  [log in to unmask]

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