Poison ivy allergy is the cause of the rash you get when exposed to this plant.
Mangoes allergies are closely related: read on.
Poison ivy protects itself in a very sneaky way. It produces urushiol, which irritates the skin, causing an allergic reaction. This is another example of a contact allergy.
The symptoms are typically blistering, unbearably itchy skin.
About 15% to 30% of the population (according to a Wikipedia article) are not allergic to Urushiol, sparing them the effects of poison ivy. It is possible for these people to develop an allergy after repeated exposure, so if you are immune to poison ivy, don’t take it for granted!
Urushiol does not need the plant to have an effect. The chemical can remain active for up to five years, and can transfer from other objects, such as boots or pant-legs.
Eating mangos can make the reaction worse, so avoid mangos if you are experiencing a poison ivy rash.
Poison ivy should never be burned as the allergen spreads in the smoke, could be inhaled, and cause serious lung problems.
Other Plants that Produce Urushiol
Poison ivy is not the only plant to produce Urushiol. We even eat some of the plants:
- Poison oak
- Poison ivy
- Poison sumac
- Cashew fruit (the cashew nut grows below the fruit)
- Mango sap (and peel in very small amounts)
Mango Allergy
Mango allergy reactions are caused by Urushiol in the sap. Most people do not seem to be bothered by the about of Urushiol in mango skin, but some people become sensitized and develop allergic reactions to mango.
If you suspect that you may be sensitive to Urushiol (for example, if you have had a bad reaction to poison ivy), I suggest you wash your mangos with soap and water before handling them, to reduce your chances of contacting Urushiol.
If you have a strong reaction to Urushiol, you are best to completely avoid mangos.
{ 52 comments… read them below or add one }
Mango Rash
I was in Florida over a week ago (almost 2 weeks) and picked Mangoes from the Mango tree in our yard before the trip back to NY. I remember the sap getting on my arm-as well as a hoard of misquitos..aside from a couple of misquito bites I was fine… then I came back home…unpacked the mangoes. Still nothing. A couple of days later I see a bump on my forearm…a strange firm blister…I thought maybe a bug bite and scratched it…but it had an opening in the middle and leaked…I was weirded out but still wasn’t too concerned… then my sister made mango sangria with the fresh mangoes–undoubtedly leaving some of the skin on–and that night we went out and I looked down on my arm and there were four more blisters on my forearm. I went to bed and the next morning they had swelled and were leaking…I thought poison ivy? but ive never had that before…or come into contact with it. so I went to a doctor..worried as hell..I’m going away to India and don’t want to worry about my health while there…first she said maybe it’s poison ivy..and then said SCABIES or HERPES..”yeah, that looks like herpes” I was freaking out.. herpes on my arm?! I haven’t even been sexually active…bitch didn’t know what she was talking about…but I did some web searching and came across the Mango Rash…and this seems to fit.. although..i didn’t break out around my mouth, just more on my arm? which seems strange..maybe that’s where the sap originally touched, but took so long to show up? I’m still not sure..and worrying… and staring at a Valtrex prescription for my arm?
severe allergic reactions from mango skin
I had just recently gone to Florida to visit my boyfriend only to find that he had a rash. He assumed it was heat rash from working construction down in key west, and dismissed it by applying a hydrocortisone cream. We went to miami for a vacation, where he quickly became itchy, sweating buckets, became sick to his stomach, dizzy, and had a horrific headache. Cold showers with oatmeal shower gel temporarily soothed his skin. Welts rising well above an inch off his arms, hands, neck, and stomach worsened. I started to panic due to the nature of his allergic reaction (we did not know why yet) and was nervous that he would soon experience an anaphylactic shock. I rushed him to a clinic that was open on a sunday where the first question the dr asked was if he had any contact w/ a mango. Sadly, he had eaten a green mango at work on Wednesday (it was now Sunday) and the reaction had increased and worsened. After 3 shots (antihistamines, steroid, and a nausea reducer) and 2 perscriptions (medrol dose pack and zyzal) it has been one week and the rash is just now starting to go down. It will be a full 3 weeks if he is lucky to have completely rid his body of this reaction!! (Even though he is young, his body is fighting this very slowly!)
If you experience this, do not try to wait it out! SEE A DR ASAP!
Got it from Mango salsa
I too discovered Mangos about 5 years ago and received the bumps around my lips and then my right eye was red and droopy… I Never associated it with the mango because it took like 5 days to show up.
When it happened again at a later date I was able to put it together and read up on the connection to the poison Ivy. I then tried not touching the skin and all that and it still happened.
I only try about once a year when I can’t take it and have to have one. The last time I ate some from Trader Joes already peeled and sliced and knew the potential but was willing to risk it and nothing happened.
This time I had some mango salsa from Trader Joes on Monday and it’s now Thursday and I had some more today and right after eating it I felt the lip bumps and now my eye is starting to droop and get a bit itchy and I was so upset because what showed up today was most likely from Monday’s and now I ate more today. ๐
Thanks for the info on cashews because I was unaware of that as well. I have eaten them but not often and don’t think I had a problem.
Dermatologist Report after severe swelling:
Just got back from the dermatologist after noticing my Angelina Jolie lips weren’t going down.
He said the same above that everyone else is stating…that I can eat mangos that have been removed from the peel…but should stay away from every handling mangos in general.
After this…I am staying COMPLETELY away from Mangos! …which is sad…I looooove them.
He gave me some expensive cream and told me to brush my teeth with Baking Soda and it would go away withing a few days if I stay away from spicy food or anything that would irritate it.
Do not google this symptom! It gets worse if you try to medicate it yourself…too much ointment application can make it spread!
Mango, Cashew, and describing events over time
Thank you for the many comments! They’ve helped me better understand what’s happened to me recently.
I discovered mango a couple years ago, but had what might be a “safer” version of it–as I rationed myself several pieces of dried mango from a Costco-sized bag over a couple weeks. (no reaction then)
About 3 months ago I began buying 1-2 mangos on occasion–every couple weeks to a month. I didn’t notice any reaction until about the fifth mango, about 30 hours after some friends and I ate two mangos–where this time we mangled the skin a bit rather than my usual careful cutting away of the skin and often rinsing the mango afterwards. After that 30 hours I broke out in a severe, blistery rash on my face (especially around my mouth, on my lips, and around my eyes), as well as a couple other areas on me that I think I must have scratched (like a part of my arm). The rash looked awful and lasted nearly 2 weeks.
Recently I’ve been eating more cashews than I have in the past, and noticing the same tingling and slight rash that mangoes brought about (in retrospect I think I may have always had the tingling when eating mangos), as well as a more minor rash that with the cashews has constrained itself to my lips (complete with little raised bumps). I think it’s time to leave cashews alone too! (I don’t want to worsen any future accidental contacts by purposeful contact now)
From what I understand:
Poison ivy, poison oak, mango sap and skin (and anything contaminated by these), all contain significant amounts of a common allergen.
Cashews and pistachios contain smaller amounts of the same potential allergen.
Whenever your body decides that a potential allergen is a threat, it prepares to be able to “attack” it with a heightened force next time–this is the same defense mechanism that prevents you from getting the same sickness twice. Exposure to a potential allergen can build up your body’s “defensive” preparation. The more your body has decided to fight something, and the more exposed to it you are, the more severe the reaction will be.
Once you know you’re allergic to something, it behooves you to avoid it as much as you possibly can.
The page below provided better-than-average information on some allergies to me, and I think may be useful to others here:
http://www.calgaryallergy.ca/Articles/English/treenuthp.htm
Mango – reaction after eating ?
Hi from the UK.
I have in recent days developed a severe rash to my scalp, head, shoulders, upper back and to a lesser degree my arms, hands and groin area.
The rash looks similar to that of poison ivy irritation, but has more pronounced “blister” type lumps, and these can be weeping on the scalp area.
I first had this rash approx. 8 mths back and the hospital and doctors could not identify the cause. We changed soap powders, body lotions, deoderants everything just in case…
Anyway, its back, and the itching and swelling is driving me crazy !
my wife pointed out that 2 days earlier i had eaten a fresh Mango, served already peeled, cut and prepared, so its not the skin of the fruit in my case.
What i would like to know is the reactions people get from eating the fruit, and if possible any links to photographs so i can compare my own rash for identification purposes.
thanks.
Don’t rule out mango
Hello Mr. UK,
Don’t rule out mango so quickly.
When you cut off the skin, the knife drags some bits from the skin through the fruit, so if you are sensitive, you may still be reacting the skin.
The real test is: no mango, no rash; mango = rash.
I’m not a doctor, and even if I was, it is not advisable to try diagnosing your problem by photos over the internet.
Besides, different people can react to exactly the same allergen in very different ways.
A dermatologist may be able to help, although many of them think only in terms of the skin, looking for causes like a mango allergy won’t necessarily be their strong point in many cases.
You can also visit an environmental doctor. They seem to be more holistic and better trained to link cause and effect beyond the standard disease models.
I hope that helps. Let us know how you get on.
mango reaction
After years of hiking, camping and dealing with poison ivy (I even train adult leaders about it, and knew that urushiol was the offending agent), I had no awareness that mangos also were in the same plant family, and produced urushiol too.
I ate mangos Friday, and had puffy lips (not as nice as Angelina’s) which have now metamorphosed into blisters around the edges…not pretty! My eyes were puffy, and now I have itchy weepy blisters (just like those from poison ivy) around where the eyeliner should be. My ears also have a rim of itchy blisters, and well…my face is red in general and somewhat bumpy looking.
I woke up this morning with chills and thought I had the flu, however I think this is all part of the reaction, recalling how sick I felt when I had a particularly bad case of poison ivy once.
Thank you all for sharing your first-hand accounts, and I too am off to see my doctor.
reaction to mango
There were 3 separate instances where I ate a mango (about 5 years ago). A roommate had introduced me to them while we were in college. I know I touched the skin before/during/after eating them. Well, each allergic reaction was a bit different but I remember having itchy, oozy, blisters and swelling around my mouth (and face) each time. It was horrible. During one reaction my face swelled up like a balloon over a period of 24-48 hours. My mom barely recognized me! I also remember my face being very hot and it felt like my face was dripping with hot sweat but it wasn’t. That was miserable!
It was so embarrassing for this to happen during college. I’m sure everyone thought I had an STD. The different doctors I had seen during each breakout had no idea what it was. One thought it was an STD. They had guesses but nothing related to mangos. I may have mentioned mangos to them at one point but I believe they didn’t think a “food allergy” could do that. One of them said it was an allergic reaction, one said it was contact dermatitis.
I had always wondered why my face had broke out like that but had stayed away from mangos ever since. After some searching last week I found information on mangos and their relation to poison ivy, sumac, etc. Makes sense. I’ve never been good around poison ivy. Thanks to everyone for sharing their experiences.
mango madness!!
Ok, so I have never had a mango in my life until the other day. Christmas night to be exact, well I liked them so much 2 nights later I had 2 more!! I started to get a rash on the side of my upper lip but thought it was from the chili powder I put on top of the mango…… Oh no I was wrong!!!! I now have a lip that is so swollen and a rash all over me, I cant even open my mouth….. not to mention go out in public!!! So I went to the doctors for this, they did not even know what I had…….. Thanks to many sites like this I got to tell them!! Well for me… I am pregnant so I do not get to take a steroid shot…….I hate life right now!!!!!!
P.s. I heard benadrly makes this worse? Can someone please help?
Mango
The allergy is to urushiol oil which is found in poison oak, poison ivy, poison sumac, cashews, mangos, pistachios, and even a certain tree in the orient who’s sap is used to paint with (black brush strokes on ‘dishes’ for the most part.)
So technically speaking, you do not become allergic to mangos after poison oak, you just become allergic to urushiol. As the allergy worsens with continued exposure, your body will react to lesser and lesser amounts of the oil. So foods that have less and less start to get you as well.
I have very severe reactions now to it. Today I’m suffering because my girlfriend used a mango scented leg shaving cream in the shower, and I later took a bath without rinsing it out all the way. I just figured it out when I looked around the bathroom for soaps, shampoos etc that might have it. It even brags that it used ‘real fruit’ lol!
Bummer. Once you start to react you should take this very seriously, the itching and pain is unbelievable. And you won’t want to go into public with the open weepy patches of tiny blisters.
Off to the clinic, hopefully for a steroid shot..
mango/poinson ivy allergies
In New York, I came in contact with poison ivy. I then went on vacation to Florida where I started getting the allergic reaction associated with it. Since the blisters were near my eye, I went to a walk in clinic to get steroids. Back in NY, a doctor had told me that poison ivy near an eye could cause vision problems. Well, the doctor in Florida thought that was ridiculous, but he did caution me to avoid mangoes. He said he sees several cases of mango allergies a week and said people who are allergic to poison ivy, might also be allergic to mangoes.
reaction to mango
I ate an over ripe mango, and instantly had a severe reaction. Vomitting and diarrhea and then a sensitivity and pain to my back and sides, hence sleeping only on my stomach. Can anybody advise?
over ripe
Maybe an over ripe mango actually had some kind of bacterial problem, because what you describe sounds more like a Staph or Bacillus toxin reaction, or even aflatoxin from mold. Too quick for Salmonella or E. coli, though. Where did the mango come from? I forget what Hep A causes, but if it was cut by someone else could have been that, too.
reaction to mango
I just this morning for the first time ever in my life had a mango reaction including flushed skin, diarrhea and vomiting which began within minutes of eating the mango. The mango was a bit past its prime, I do not know if this had anything to do with my symptoms but I have never had trouble eating mangos until today.
Bad Mango Reaction
About 2 weeks ago, I broke out with a bad bad horribly itchy rash on both my forearms. Nobody knew what it was. The first doctor treated me for scabies, the second doctor thought it was a bactirial thing. The third doctor, a dermatologist said it was poison oak. thing is, we hadn’t been hiking for months. I also didn’t think that it could be poison oak, because we had just been in Hawaii and they don’t have poison oak there.
It didn’t come together until my husband’s mother, who’s from Hawaii, said that it was maybe mango. Then I remembered that we were picking mangos the day before we left.
The rash is still really bad, but it’s good to know what’s causing it!
Mangos and Cashews
I lived for a year in Africa and thoroughly enjoyed mango season, until an african friend brought a couple of mangos by my house one day. He peeled and ate his with his teeth, and I did the same. The next day, I had blisters on my lips and around them. Since then, I’ll eat a rare mango when someone else peels it, and have a very mild reaction. I did not know until just now that cashews could cause the same reaction! I’ve been eating cashews for 3 days now, and yesterday I noticed blisters on my lips, just like mangos. I haven’t been near mangos recently, and was baffled to know what it was, until I saw the cashews listed on this website as a source of Urushiol. Being pregnant, it’s a pity I can’t enjoy this enormous container of cashews I just bought, butat least this means it’s not the bananas!
I have always had a pretty bad reaction to Poison Ivy, and evern worse to Poison Oak. I have eaten cashews and mangoes on and off for years, though without ever noticing a problem, until two years ago I developed a mysterious rash on my lips. They feel chapped for about a day, and then get these tiny blisters all over them. I finally connected the rash to cashew butter, whihc I had developed a fondness for at the time and was eating a lot of. Two years later, I have tried cashew butter twice since then (the first time I’d forgotten the whole first incident, and the second time I was just trying to confirm my suscpicion). Well, the reaction is worse. The blisters come up faster, and I also get very tired feeling, and kind of sick to my stomach. My eyes are a bit swollen and puffy, and my anus itches. Strangely, I don’t seem to react to raw cashews (although I know no cashews sold at stores in the US are truly raw), but just to the butter. I think the butter manufacturing process may cause some contamination with the oil. I haven’t noticed a reaciton to mango, but it has been a couple of years since I’ve handled mango skin, and I don’t often eat the fruit.
Allergic to Mango’s Peels
I had to find out what was going after last evening needing a lot of lip balm thinking I had dry lips. This morning I find that I have mini blisters in the corners and middle of my lips…then I realized I had an allergic reaction to mango peels. As a child I never had a problem with poison ivy, etc. As an adult and working in a wild garden area of a new house, I found I got 3 sets of poison ivy reaction, and every one worse than the one before. It has been 10-13 years since my last ‘attack’. The only other allergic reaction I have at all is actually toxicity to milk products because of lactose from drinking whole milk as a child to the age of 30. I drank milk as if it were water. Then 3 evenings ago I picked up 9 mangoes that I decided to ‘peel’, slice and freeze for later uses. My problem? I scraped the remaining fruit off of the peel with my teeth giving full contact with my lips. Nothing showed up until last evening (24 hrs.) with the dry lips…now I know I have more setting in…no fun! Hard lesson learned! I have no problems with the fruit itself though…
Regarding the taste of
Regarding the taste of mangoes – I never liked them until I ate them in West Africa. The ones in the US are rather tasteless.
Also, I have friends who are allergic to mango skin, but have no problems if they eat pieces of mango that have already been skinned and cut up, so that might be a solution.
Allergic to poison ivy but mangos taste great
I was raised in Peru till the age of 10, at which point my parents took me to New Jersey. It goes without saying I was exposed to tons of mango peels as I devoured one of the most common fruits in Peru… and yet I never developed a rash, or even moved past the “slight tingling” described above. And yet I have had my brushes with poison ivy in New Jersey, just grazed a couple of seedlings, and my fingers developed blisters and the typical rash. That was my first serious encounter with urushiol. Nowadays I’m back in Peru, I eat mangos almost every other day, and I’m wondering… shouldn’t I have become sentivized from having had that poison ivy episode back in the States? Not to mention all the mangos I’ve consumed in the last three years! I mean, is the progressive increase in the severity of the reaction just something that happens to people with a genetic propensity for allergies to urushiol?
My dad and my cousins taught me to eat mango whole, peel and everything. Although now I peel my mangos as a precaution, and because I don’t really like the taste of the peel all that much, one would think I would have gotten enough urushiol in my system to start having some serious reactions to eating mangos, don’t you think?
not allergic to poision ivy and mangos have no taste
I am not allergic to poison ivy, which is kind of strange. Just about everyone I’ve met over the years is allergic to it. Also, eventhough everyone raves about how tasteful and wonderful mangos are, I must be missing a tastebud or something because they barely have any flavor at all to me. I feel a bit jilted since they look and feel like they would be really good. I wonder if there is a connection
Take the good with the bad
Interesting … although I doubt the taste of a mango has anything to do with the $allergy$-causing urushiol. Too bad you can’t enjoy mangos, but I guess there are plenty of other fruits you can enjoy.
Mangoes have no taste. Sure.
Mangoes have no taste. Sure. It definitely depends on the variety of mango you are eating. The mangoes available in the US neither taste nor smell like actual mangoes. I grew up in India and every summer we probably had tons of mangoes. We’d have mangoes in desserts, smoothies, even mango curries. In India, most people just pick a mango, pinch the top and suck on it……
I do not have any reaction to poison ivy but I can taste mangoes. Most Indians I know are not sensitive to poison ivy. The answer is clear. Immunogenic reaction! Since we are exposed to small amounts of urushiol (the toxic oil in poison ivy and mango skins) from the mangoes, we develop antibodies for it.
If you actually want to taste a mango, you’ll have to go to India where there are over 500 varieties of mangoes.
Indian mango angle – interesting!
Thanks for the Indian mango info.
Next time I am in India, I will be sure to have as many different varieties of mango as possible.
i thought if you were
i thought if you were alergic to something and you had whatever it was that you were alergic to your body would build up antibodys to it, but the next time you had it your reaction would be worse due to the antibodies?
Unfortunately, the idea that you develop antibodies against the urushiol and as a result you don’t react, does not make sense. Immunologically speaking the reason people break out is because the immune is sensitized to react. Having antibodies specific for the urushiol would only activate the immune system which would not help the cellular immune reaction against the urushiol. It is more likely that your antibodies have no recognition for urushiol whatsoever. A lack of reactivity from the B lymphocytes would make more sense if you are not having a T lymphocyte reaction which is what potentiates the cell mediated responses resulting in hypersensitivity reactions. Of course, the entire story is much more complex since many other cells and molecules are involved, but the bottom line is that antibodies are not the reason for your lack of sensitivity.
Poison Ivy/Mango connection
Well I’m extremely allergic to poison ivy, have been all my life. I was never told about a connection with chemicals in poison ivy and mangos. i found this site researching mango rashes because what i thought was poison ivy a few weeks ago broke out around my mouth, nothing i did seemed to help it, it ran it course and went away. just a few days ago the same rash came back! i recalled eating mangos that day and thought id look into it. This rash is unbearable with out a prescription so if u know u have a poison ivy allergy, be careful with mangos. i wouldn’t eat them while having a poison ivy breakout just because mangos have the same allergy causing chemical and u might end up with 2 rashes opposed to one! So i do believe that one of these rashes could fuel the other one.
Handling a mango with the
Handling a mango with the skin can cause a rash after repeated exposure, and very sensitive people may develop a similar irritation in the digestive tract after eating the fruit, but eating a mango cannot make an ongoing poison ivy rash any worse.
Debatable?
This point seems to be debatable, since some sources state that eating mango can make a poison ivy rash worse.
There are two courses of action you can take:
So which course should you take? That depends on your risk tolerance and how bad the rash is. In the end, it is up to you to decide.
As far as developing a rash to mango itself, I personally would not worry about this, unless I had a job as a mango picker or packer. Or if I ate a lot of mango.
Anyone with personal experience, do please add a comment!
eating mango while having poison ivy
Okay, didn’t know about the mango thing. 13 days ago was exposed to poison sumac (wednesday). Friday woke up with my lip tingling and neck turning red, not much, but still red. I still didn’t know what was going on. My mom calls and wants to go to lunch. We go to this new place in Tulsa and I order chicken and mango salad. I have never had mango in my life before then.
By 2:30 in the afternoon I had blisters coming up around my mouth and nose and the rash was getting huge on my neck and going down into my chest. By the next morning couldn’t even bend my head down my neck was so swollen. Anyway, after a trip to the doctor, a steriod shot and 10 day supply of pills, 13 days later I’m still miserable, although the only thing that has pretty much healed is my face, thank God. My chest and arms are still pretty bad.
I don’t know if I can attribute the severity of this to the mango, but I know it’s 13 days later and I’m not better. I had a bad case in the 8th grade that had my eyes swollen shut and I was better in a week.
Nasty!
Well, that sounds perfectly nasty. I guess you will never know for sure if the mango made the poison sumac worse, although it sure sounds like it. Definitely not worth repeating the experiment with poison sumac but without the mango salad from the sounds of it!
MANGO SAP
THE SAP IN MANGO HAS THE UROSHIOL THAT IS FOUND IN POISON IVY, SUMAK AND OAK. IF YOU TOUCH THE TREE, SKIN OF MANGO IF SAP IS STILL ON IT OR SAP YOU WILL BREAK OUT THE SAME AS THE OTHER POISON PLANTS. I NEVER KNEW UNTIL I HAD THE RASH. IT STARTS IN 24-48 HOURS AFTER EXPOSURE. THE FRUIT IS NOT THE ALLERGEN. YOU CAN STILL EAT IT.
Mango sap
My boyfriend was cutting a mango tree in the front of his yard, and the juice of the mango, or in other word the “sap”, dripped all over his skin. He ingnored it, not washing where the sap dripped on, and went on his way through the day. This was a couple of days ago. Just yesterday bump-like rash began to develp on his arms and legs. I’ve seen it, and I’m completely grossed out. I wanted to know how to treat it and how long until its fully treated.
I know how you feel. I had the allergac reaction befor and it was unbearable, the itching,burning,and everything else. But I’m fine now.
you don’t actually get a
you don’t actually get a reaction from EATING mango.
it’s only when the skin is still on it and you handle it.
Not true for everyone
Eating mango can be a problem for some people (just read the comments!) The skin is a slightly bigger problem. The sap (which you will only encounter from the tree, not from mangos in the store) is a big problem for almost anyone who touches it – if not the first time then on subsequent exposures.
mango
Hi, Well I cannot eat mango, my hands and feet get itchy within 5 minutes. The last time I had a hard time swallowing. I carry benadryl with me always. It is very scary Nancy
Allergies to Mango Sap
I am VERY allergic to poison ivy. As a child I had it multiple times and was put on steroids. I lived in Costa Rica for 2 years and began eating mangos and cashew fruit. The unripe mango did not give me a bad reaction…just slight tingling in the lips and face, but after repeated handling of ripe mango I realized that the sap from the skin alone was enough to have a slightly worse reaction. After returning to the states I bought a mango for my husband and cut it for him. That episode of handling the mango itself was enough to make my face swell up like the character from the movie Hitch. I couldn’t leave the house for 2 weeks. I also ate cashew fruit while in Costa Rica. After the third time of eating the fruit, I made the connection that it too was causing my eyes and mouth to swell. I am sure that after repeated exposure it would eventually lead to blistering of the skin like the mango did. Beware…handling the mango itself can causea serious reaction if you are allergic to poison ivy!!!! Unfortunately I didn’t realize all these things were related until after I got back to the states.
allergic reaction to mango DOES exist
I have gotten a rash from eating a mango before, so there you go. I’m severely allergic to the oil produced by plants in the family Anacardiaceae, which of course includes poison ivy, poison sumac, etc as well as mangoes, cashews, and more. Many anacards, including poison ivy, mangoes, and cashews, all produce the same compound- urushiol- in the oil found in the plant sap. Cashew oil (from the husk containing the cashew nut) is terribly terribly toxic- you can die within a short time of ingesting it. I once got a severe allergic reaction to cashew oil (I got it on my legs… don’t ask) in Costa Rica, which started with a severe rash covering my legs and then became systemic and the rash broke out on my face and belly. I spent the worst nights of my life before a doctor could finally tame this reaction (thank you steroids).
The doctors all told me to avoid eating certain foods- among them mangoes since they are in the same plant family and could worsen my symptoms. Now, this may just be because my allergy was systemic, but I would still avoid mangoes while suffering an allergic reaction from any anacard (poison ivy, sumac…) I mean, why not?
Just to let you know, though, I do not get a rash simply from eating mango (at least I haven’t yet…)- I got the rash because I ate it straight from the skin instead of cutting it out of the skin, and I think the mango skin touched the area around my mouth, which is why the rash was all around my mouth.
It sucks, so if you are allergic to this compound, be careful.
Cashew Poison – that’s quite a story
Thanks for your story, Ruth.
It should be a cautionary tail to anyone who doesn’t know about severe a reaction you can get from what we all think of edible plants!
Mango rash.
Here is my mango rash story. I have never encounteded poison ivy, and I live in Oregon where at this time of year poison oak is still dormant. I haven’t been out in the woods or anything lately. And i’m pretty positive I don’t have anything in my yard for my pets to bring in. I had a mango the other day (I love mango’s) and I didn’t think anything of it. But like four or five hours later, I started to notice the side of my mouth was really red and irritated. Then I woke up to find that all around my mouth was red and puffy. It looked just like poison oak, except it didn’t itch as bad. I don’t know if I could have had a reaction to the mango. I still wonder, I haven’t had a mango since.
New seasons?
Did you buy your mango at New Seasons in Beaverton? I had one over the weekend from there and have a strange rash. I did some Internet sleuthing and discovered mango could be the culpret. I leard my new thing for the day I guess. If you bought it there, I wonder if they had a batch that had sap on it- which would definitely cause this.
Mango Rash
Hi there!
I have to give a personal experience as an example of how severe the mango rash can be…
While in Costa Rica a few years ago I developed a severe rash all over my entire body, and was not sure what it was from for several days. I was also eating at least one delcious mango a day down there and handling the skin. It was truly unbearable how bad the rash became, and as soon as I stopped eating mango, it cleared up within a few days. It was just like poison ivy only honestly it was so much worse. I used to get poison ivy as a child and it had nothing on the mango rash!
So if you’re sensitive to poison ivy, I don’t suggest eating 1-2 mangos a day in Costa Rica (or anywhere else!)
Stay away from the Forbidden Fruit
Mangoes are beautiful to look at and even sweeter to eat, but watch out they can be a deadly treat!
Being a New Yorker, and never seeing a Mango tree or ever eating a Mango period until moving into our new home in Sunny Central Florida. Everyone around ranted and raved how wonderful they are. I gave away about 50 or more mangoes off of our tree, never once thinking I needed to beware, I gave in and ate one of the little evil beasts!
Not only did I have the sap all over my arm and hand, but now the fruit on my face.
Although the reaction was about 24hrs delayed, Holy Hell! my skin felt like It was on fire and I wanted to rip it off,and itched worse than any thing I have ever felt in my life!
I went to the doctor and was given a good ol’ Dex injection.. HA! it did nothing, that with cortisone cream would not stop the evil wrath of the Mango!
3 days later, my chin and mouth started to swell, again another steroid injection, Epinepherine and a high dose Prednisone pack to go home, 10 days out of work, and ordered to stay cool! Sure this was welll worth eating a stupid Mango.
I guess Mango sap contains the same irritant as Poison Ivy in very small amount- Great way to find that out!
It has been 5 days since the irritation started and Doc says it takes about 3 weeks to completely go away.
Was all this really worth eating the stupid mango…
This is probably really what killed Adam and Eve!
Although I write this light heartedly, I mean this with true sincerity, If you are unsure if you have a mango allergy use caution, this has been a horrible experience for myself and my family.
Traumatic story!
Your story is traumatic!
From what you said, the main problem wasn’t eating the fruit, but getting the sap on your hands and arms.
Eating the fruit may have made it worse, or done nothing – you wouldn’t have become sensitized to it yet.
You may still be able to eat the fruit, but I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t want to try it – you may have sensitized yourself.
Most people are fine eating mangoes because they are not hyper-sensitive to urushiol.
Now that you have and such a massive exposure, it may be a different story.
I have a rash like poison ivy on my lips and face due to mango….it hurts like heck…i wish i knew what to do….
paind and itching ……ack if i had know this i never would have eaten a mango
I have an 11-months old baby and is having a really bad allergy reaction right now because eating mangoes. We usually give him mango almost everyday or every other day to avoid constipation (which happens very often to my baby as well) we started giving him mangoes sine he was 6 months i guess. And only now did he had that allergy. His face is all in red, His eyes would produce mucus more than the usual and the eyelids are swelling, the mouth is blistering as well. Most affected areas are the eys, nose, mouth, ears, neck, and his penis. Its been four days now and the redness wont go away.. HELP PLEASE
If the comments on this thread are not helpful, also read the mango allergy thread.
I discovered a few years ago that I am highly allergic to mangoes. Everyone thought I was nuts! But it’s not just the skin that affects me. I would get a poison-ivy type rash, blisters, etc anywhere that I had not washed the mango juice off my skin. I hadn’t noticed some had caught up underneath my rings, and got terrible rashes just there, and where it had dripped down my arm and I had only wiped it off with a napkin.
I believe I developed the allergy over time. In other words, I started out only mildly allergic, and would be affected by touching the skin of the mango like so many others, and it escalated to the point where I really can’t eat mango at all anymore, regardless of how careful I am to stay clear of the skin.
I was quite relieved when I looked it up online one day, and found out that Urushiol existed in both mangoes and poison ivy. Not nuts!
I have always been very sensitive to poison oak. I get a terrible oozing blistered rash, and I can get it over and over again if everything I have touched has not been thoroughly washed. I also have always been allergic to mango skin, it gives me a rash that is slightly less than poison oak. I was always able to eat them though, if I took care not to touch the skin.
Last week, I got poison oak. Then, this Saturday I ate about a cup of dried mango pieces. I woke up at 3 am covered with terrible, itchy red hives all over my body, on my hands and feet, between my fingers and toes, all over my arms and legs, itching abominably. Two days later, I am on prednisone but the itching has not abated. Feel like crawling out of my skin. I will never touch another mango!!!
Mango reactions
In the 1990’s we lived in Costa Rica and had many different fruit trees in our large back yard. We had 2 mango trees. My husband picked them peeled them and cut them up for everyone but himself as he didn’t like the taste. The first time he did this he had severe rash and itching all up his arms. We figured out that when he pulled the fruit from the tree the sap squirted out on his hands and arms. It was awful. A neighbor explained what had probably happened. So any further picking was with long sleeves and gloves. etc. Beware mango lovers!