Eating fruits such as bananas, avocados, chestnuts, and plantains, all types of foods that contain chitinases, can help you get the health benefits of chitinase in order to improve your overall health and help prevent possible allergic reactions which could lead to respiratory problems such as asthma.

Chitin, the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature after cellulose, is found in the exoskeleton of insects, fungi, yeast, and algae, and in the internal structures of other vertebrates. Chitinases are enzymes that degrade chitin. Chitinases contribute to the generation of carbon and nitrogen in the ecosystem.

As shown in figure 2, chitinases of apparent molecular masses of 26 and 32 kDa were the predominant proteins recovered from the extracts. Unlike in the pulp, the 26 kDa chitinase was present in low amounts in peel throughout the ripening process.

Interestingly, these proteins—or ones very similar—can be found in banana, kiwi, avocado, potato, strawberries, peaches and chestnuts. Both latex and these foods are plant-derived, and contain chitinase I, a pan allergen responsible for the latex-fruit syndrome.

Allergic reactions to banana vary widely and can include itching of the mouth and throat, itchy rash (hives, urticaria), skin or mucosal swellings (angioedema), and in rare cases narrowing of the throat, wheezing, and even collapse. In most cases, symptoms begin within seconds or minutes of eating the fruit.

Humans and other mammals have chitinase and chitinase-like proteins that can degrade chitin; they also possess several immune receptors that can recognize chitin and its degradation products in a pathogen-associated molecular pattern, initiating an immune response.

Presence in food Phasoleus vulgaris, bananas, chestnuts, kiwifruit, avocados, papaya, and tomatoes, for example, all contain significant levels of chitinase, as defense against fungal and invertebrate attack.

Human chitinases are reported to play a protective role against chitin-containing pathogens through their capability to degrade chitin present in the cell wall of pathogens. Now, human chitinases are gaining attention as the key players in innate immune response.

Symptoms of banana allergy The first signs of allergy can appear very soon after eating or tasting bananas, depending on the severity of your allergy. Some people also have reactions from skin contact with bananas, including the banana peel.

If you have latex allergy you also can have food allergies. The foods most likely to cause this problem include: apple, avocado, banana, carrot, celery, chestnut, kiwi, melons, papaya, raw potato and tomato.

Eating fruits such as bananas, avocados, chestnuts, and plantains, all types of foods that contain chitinases, can help you get the health benefits of chitinase in order to improve your overall health and help prevent possible allergic reactions which could lead to respiratory problems such as asthma. I’ve seen tremendous improvement in my body.

Moreover, chitinase and chitinous materials are used in the food industry for other purposes, such as the production of single-cell proteins, chitooligosaccharides, N-acetyl D-glucosamines, biocontrol, functional foods, and various medicines.

Chitinases are a group of allergens often found in plant fruits, but also identified in edible insects. They are classified into different families and classes for which structural analyses and identification of epitopes have been only partially carried out. Moreover, also their presence in common allergen databases is not complete.

Stress, or environmental signals like ethylene gas, may stimulate increased production of chitinase. Some parts of chitinase molecules, almost identical in structure to hevein or other proteins in rubber latex due to their similar function in plant defense, may trigger an allergic cross-reaction known as latex-fruit syndrome.