That is correct regarding Schinus molle, commonly marketed as Red Peppercorns in many countries. However, there is true red pepper. Piper nigrum, if fully ripe, can have red berries. Have a look:
7 Likes
So if someone is allergic to cashews, they have to be careful the restaurant didn’t use a pepper blend in making the food? Yikes.
6 Likes
Edit: I suspect it’s not closely related enough to trigger a cashew allergy, Apparently it does, but in addition if you’re not allergic to red (or black) pepper, it doesn’t mean you’ll also not be allergic to black (or red) pepper.
6 Likes
Being in the same family does not really mean things are close enough to have cross-reactions – apples, cherries, strawberries, and raspberries are all in the rose family and very different. But it looks like Schinus and cashews are close enough that they can.
8 Likes
Huh, that’s pretty wild. I had heard of other health issues related to consumption of pink “peppercorns” but not that. I also didn’t realize cashew and pistachio allergies were the same…
5 Likes
This one I knew, the mushroom one, I didn’t. It feels weird to discover this so late in life.
3 Likes
Huh, I knew that English had countless terms for what I would call a “Champignon”, but I never thought about how this would confuse things.
3 Likes
Mushroom names confused me so much when I first started to cook from English language recipes: “can’t they see that these are clearly all the same mushroom?? Just look at them!!”
3 Likes
And selection for seeds = mustard & rapeseed/canola
3 Likes
They didn’t forget – those are related but not the same species. Mustards are from things like Rhamphospermum nigrum or Sinapis alba, rapeseed from Brassica napus, and turnips from Brassica rapa. So they were already different before human selection, whereas cabbage and kale and broccoli and so on are all Brassica oleracea varieties.
9 Likes
Ah, Aroeira. It used to be a common bush that some people used as medicine. Some years ago my father was amazed as He read that fancy pink Pepper was growing for years in His garden and He didn’t even notice.
2 Likes
Yeah, my suggestions begin and end with what you can find in your local grocery store 
They might not be the same.
The family has a tendency to have dihydrobencenes with long unbranched side chains, and a lot of terpenoids in addition. Those can cause direct toxic reactions in human subjects. (I have seen people’s hands loosing their skin after coming into contact with resin from a mango tree, which was sticking to the mango skin in copious amounts.)
However, the dihydrobencenes and several terpenoids also can, as far as I remember, trigger the human immune system, and thua, as far as I know, lead to allergies against other stuff one comes into contact to within a timeframe. Which might be from the same plant, but also something else.
Heavy disclaimer: as in basically everything related to the immune system, I have no fucking clue what I am actually talking about. What actually happens, how long said timeframe may be, how much timeframe or sensitivity may differ between individuals - don’t ask me. Immunology was the most vexing thing during my studies a quarter of a century ago, and I’ll be damned but I can think of nothing which seems more complicated, in general.
But I am positive that Anacardiaceae are a tasty bunch which can easily give you something to regret, and the regrets could be based on very different mechanisms.
Update
Second disclaimer - please see @chenille’s response below. They are correct, and I may also have talked garbage about the role of terpenoids above. I would have to do some literature research on that. (Sorry, can’t do that now…)
1 Like
Do you mean dihydroxybenzenes, like catechols and resorcinols? Those work as allergens. They get absorbed through the skin thanks to the side chains, oxidized to quinones, and then combine with proteins in a way that can set off an immune response. The urushiols from poison ivy and poison sumac and cardols from cashew resins (in the plants, not seeds) being the most famous.
I don’t think the terpenoid resins themselves are particularly toxic to humans – people chew mastic just like pine gum – and I’m not sure I’d expect them to be allergens. I’d love to know if there are cases otherwise. But of course you can react to other things too. Pistachio and cashew allergies tend to be from storage proteins in the seeds, which is why people can cross-react to other nuts.
3 Likes
Yes, dihydrobenzenes is correct! As a German native speaker, I was likely overcorrecting my translation of Dihydrobenzol. 
And yes, I was thinking of catechols and resochinones, without remembering most much about them. I really should re-learn some of my organic chemistry stuff. Or channel my inner McCoy. (“I’m a botanist, Jim!” 
)
Thanks for correcting me, also on the terpenoids. Would have to look into that more closely, so I’ll better add a disclaimer above.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
