Food intake histamine effects

Imamura, I., Watanabe, T., Maeyama, K., Kubota, A., Okada, A., and Wada, H., 1984, Effect of food intake on urinary excretions of histamine, N -methylhistamine, imidazole acetic acid and its conju-gate(s) in humans and mice, J. Biochem. 96 1931-1937. 

Histamine is the biological amine, playing an important role in living systems, but it can also cause unnatural or toxic effects when it is consumed in lai ge amounts. It can occur with some diseases and with the intake of histamine-contaminated food, such as spoiled fish or fish products, and can lead to undesirable effects as headache, nausea, hypo- or hypertension, cai diac palpitations, and anaphylactic shock syndrome. So, there is a need to determine histamine in biological fluids and food. 

Urticaria due to intake of tartrazine is more widely accepted as an adverse effect and has been demonstrated in a number of studies. During this reaction substances such as histamine are released into the blood which cause the symptoms of red weals on the skin and itching. A number of other food colours and other types of food additives can also cause urticaria and there may be cross-reactivity between colours such as eryth-rosine and sunset yellow. A challenge of patients whose urticaria had improved on a colour-free diet with 0.15 mg of tartrazine, resulted in three out of thirteen developing urticaria within three hours of exposure."... 

---