Allergic Reactions to Certain Plants used in RZN Products

Two of the herbs presently included in the ingredient in certain RZN products, Dandelion and Goldenrod, are known to elicit allergic reactions of the ‘pollen allergy’ or ‘hay fever’ type when sensitive people are exposed to their pollen.  Such people might therefore have some concern about taking RZN products. 

The likelihood that such a reaction would occur is extremely low, and for two very good reasons.  The allergic reactions to the pollen of certain plants that most people are familiar with is considerably different than any sensitivity to an extract of a certain part of the plant.  First, let’s discuss pollen as opposed to extracts as the cause of allergies.  

An allergy is a sensitivity to a normally harmless substance, one that does not bother most people.  The allergen (the foreign substance that provokes a reaction) can be a food, dust particles, a drug, insect venom, or mold spores, as well as POLLEN.  Allergic people usually have a sensitivity to more than one substance.

Pollen sensitivity is typically manifested as sneezing, coughing, itching, runny noses, and watering eyes when the pollen starts to fly.  Each spring, summer, or fall tiny particles are released from various plants as part of their reproductive cycle.  These particles, known as pollen, hitch rides on currents of air.  Although their mission is to fertilize parts of other plants, many never reach their targets.  Instead, they make unscheduled detours into human noses and throats.  At these sites, the pollen can trigger the allergic reaction that doctors call pollen allergy, or seasonal allergic rhinitis, and that many people know as hay fever.

Normally, the immune system functions as the body's defense against invading agents (bacteria and viruses, for instance).  In most allergic reactions, however, the immune system is responding to a false alarm.  When allergic persons first come into contact with an allergen, their immune systems treat the allergen as an invader and mobilize to attack. The immune system does this by generating large amounts of a certain type of antibody.   Each antibody is specific for one particular allergen.  In the case of pollen allergy, the antibody is specific for each type of pollen: one antibody may be produced to react against oak pollen and another against ragweed pollen, for example.

These antibody molecules attach themselves to certain tissue and blood cells.  When the enemy allergen next encounters the antibodies, the allergen attaches to the antibody like a key fitting into a lock, signaling the cell to which it’s attached to release (and in some cases to produce) powerful inflammatory chemicals like histamines, prostaglandins, leukotrienes, and others.  The effects of these chemicals on various parts of the body cause the symptoms of allergy.  They are also the very chemicals that RZN joint comfort products fight against!

Sensitivity (allergy) to pollen is thought to be related to chemicals and/or structures on the surface of the pollen particle (the particles are microscopic) that have some purpose related to the pollen’s function in life, e.g. to be recognized as a fertilizing agent by the sexual reproduction parts of a plant of a particular species.  Pollen generally has no pharmacological activity of note in humans, and as far as can be known, none of the highly specialized chemicals contained in or on pollen granules occur in other parts of the plant.

Herbal extracts, as used in RZN formulations, contain phytochemicals (chemicals from the plant which are dissolved in the extraction fluid) that have medicinal properties.  None of the chemicals so derived have any function related to the reproductive cycle of the plant, and the chemicals only come from isolated structures on the plant, such as stems, roots, or leaves (except for extract of Goldenrod).  The concentration of these chemicals is extremely low when compared to the amount of pollen taken in during seasonal pollen outbreaks.  One of the most obvious features of pollen allergy is its seasonal nature, i.e. people experience its symptoms only when the pollen grains to which they are allergic are in the air.  Each plant has a pollinating period that is more or less the same from year to year.  In the case of Goldenrod we do use extracts of the flower, but the flowers that are dried (and then extracted) for medicinal use are collected before the pollination part of the annual cycle begins.  This means that there is essentially a nil chance that pollen could or would get into the extract.  It also means that the specialized physical “signaling” structures on the surface of the pollen grain are not present to add their contribution to an allergic response. 

Therefore, a “pollen allergy” to a particular plant that also happens to be one of the ingredient herbs in a RZN product does not necessarily imply that the person would also be sensitive to extracts of the same plant, although such a sensitivity may indeed exist.  It is up to each individual user to determine if he or she does indeed have a sensitivity to the extracts of a particular herb