Roy Sachs wrote: >I'm no longer as sensitive to poison oak >as I was before working with alstros (although I don't test my >immunity to poison oak too often). Thanks for the tip, Roy. Maybe if I'm more attentive to the cultivation of my Alstroemeria, it will have the added benefit of imparting some resistace to the local and very nasty poison ivy. : ) That's a win/win! Jim McKenney jimmckenney@starpower.net Montgomery County, Maryland zone 7 where the hellebores and alstros are not itchy, but the poison ivy more than makes up for it At 01:22 PM 1/23/2004 -0800, you wrote: >>Most postings on this topic seem to assume that the putative allergens are >>coming from the Alstroemeria. I know absolutely nothing about the >>commercial production of Alstroemeria for cut flowers. But as valuable as >>that crop is, I'll bet they are sprayed with something somewhere along the >>line. Maybe that something (or those somethings) is the source of the >>allergens. >> >>Jim McKenney >>jimmckenney@starpower.net >>Montgomery County, Maryland zone 7 where the one Alstroemeria long >>established in the garden has never bitten me > >Jim: I've been to producers of alstroemeria and to florists who buy >them from me...no treatments at all (other than putting them in vase >life solutions. Not all the handlers wore latex gloves...most did not. > >So I think there is something inherently toxic in the alstros (it's >in the literature, too); immunity to that something varies from nil >(or acquired) to complete among those who work with them all >year-round. > >Jane McGary's resistance to the toxin in some of the sumacs is >perhaps a good indicator to whether one is going to be sensitive to >the compound(s) in alstros. I'm no longer as sensitive to poison oak >as I was before working with alstros (although I don't test my >immunity to poison oak too often). > >Roy >_______________________________________________ >pbs mailing list >pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >