Identification of Potential Allergens of Atractylodes japonica and Addition of Panels for Allergic Diseases

The use of herbal medicines is increasing significantly worldwide. However, studies on side effects such as allergic reactions of herbal medicines are lacking. To provide an effective prescription, a diagnostic test to determine whether an allergic reaction is induced in the patient must be preceded. In this study, the purpose of this study is to investigate whether Atractylodes japonica extract, used as herbal medicine, binds to human serum IgE and induces an allergic reaction as an immune response complex, and to add a panel of allergens to the Allergy Q kit. First, using the Allergy-Q test kit, 253 sera samples were screened and 4 samples each from positive and negative serogroups were randomly selected. AJ extracts were separated by size through sodium dodecyl sulfate–polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and stained with Coomassie blue dye. We then used Western blotting and in-gel digest to identify proteins that bind to human serum IgE, and predicted six proteins, including putative chitinases, proteasomes, and hypothetical proteins, using MASCOT program matching. Consequently, we demonstrated the potential of AJ as an allergen by confirming the sensitivity between AJ-derived proteins and human IgE.