Antiallergic activities of shallot and its therapeutic effects in allergic rhinitis. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Antiallergic activities of shallot (Allium ascalonicum L.) and its therapeutic effects in allergic rhinitis.
Asian Pac J Allergy Immunol. 2019 Aug 18. Epub 2019 Aug 18. PMID: 31421664
Warangkana Arpornchayanon
BACKGROUND: Onion has antiallergic activity but lack of evidence for shallot.
OBJECTIVES: To determine whether shallot owns similar antiallergic activity to onion and its therapeutic effects in allergic rhinitis when added to standard treatment METHODS: In-vitroβ-hexosaminidase inhibitory activities of shallot was compared with onion on RBL-2H3 cells. In clinical study, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was performed. Sixteen AR patients were randomized equally into the controls who received cetirizine 10 mg once daily and placebo capsules for 4 weeks, and the treatment who received 3g of oral shallot per day (equivalent to 1 ½ bulbs) and cetirizine. Visual analog scores of overall symptoms (VAS), total nasal and ocular symptom scores (TNSS and TOSS), nasal airway resistance (NAR), and adverse events were assessed.
RESULTS: Shallot extract at 200μg/mL had an average β-hexosaminidase inhibition rate of 97% while onion extract had 73%. HPLC chromatograms (λ = 290nm) of both plants showed nearly identical patterns of quercetin compounds, such as quercetin 3,4'-diglucoside, quercetin 4'-glucoside, and quercetin. After 4-week of treatment, 62.5% of patients in shallot group and 37.5% of patients in control group showed improvement of post-treatment VAS. TNSS were significantly reduced in both groups, however no difference between groups (P = 0.18). TOSS were significantly improved only in the shallot group (P = 0.01). Adverse events from shallot were not different from placebo.
CONCLUSIONS: Shallot had antiallergic activity and similar quercetin compounds to onion. The shallot oral supplement and cetirizine was shown to improve the overall AR symptoms more than cetirizine alone.