[Allergy to kiwi: an unrecognized allergy]

We reported 4 cases of an uncommon hypersensitivity: hypersensitivity to kiwi fruit. The clinical reactions, essentially buccal, occurred few minutes after ingestion of the fruit. The Radio Allergo Sorbent Test were positive in the 4 cases. The skin tests, with fresh extracts of kiwi, made in 3 cases were dramatically positive, while they are negative in controls patients. The kiwi fruit initially comes from China, but is now produced in France, and especially in Poitou-Charente. It contains a proteolytic enzyme call Actinidin with physical and chemical properties similar to those of Papain, who can perhaps explain this hypersensitivity.