sensitized to foods of animal origin (2). Allergy to sunflower seeds has been documented in foodallergic patients from Mediterranean countries (3), and sunflower pollen sensitization has been reported as an occupational allergy (4). The case presented here is different in that the patient in our report did not have any food allergy, and the clinical circumstances of presentation were unique. Increased concentrations of specific IgE in our patient against other members of the Compositae family of vegetables were consistent with the observation of cross-reactivity between sunflower and other Compositae pollen, including mugwort and dandelion, as shown by RAST and immunoblotting-inhibition experiments (5). Thus, the production of IgE against additional members of the Compositae family supports the validity of our conclusions. Eating sunflower seeds is common in Israel as well as in other Mediterranean countries. The seeds are usually bought unpeeled, cleaned, ^—————^^^——^-^ and then peeled and eaten. However, commercially available packages of peeled sunflower seeds are not always clean enough and apparently may contain sunflower pollen. The case further shows _ ^ — — . i . ^ — . i . ^ ^ ^ ^ that ingestion of such preparations of peeled seeds can cause systemic allergic symptoms in some patients. Therefore, we recommend the following two measures to improve the safety of the public:
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Barbas et al. (1998) studied this question.