No correlation between wine intolerance and histamine content of wine

Background: Histamine is thought to be the main clause of adverse reactions to wines. Objective: The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the le vel of histamine in wine affects the tolerance to wine in 16 subjects with wine intolerance. Methods: We performed a study to examine the effects of wine histamine cont ent in 16 adults with wine intolerance. Each subject underwent 2 double-bli nd provocation tests with wine: 1 with a wine poor in histamine (0.4 mg/L), and 1 with a wine rich in histamine (13.8 mg/L). Blood was collected for h istamine and methylhistamine RIAs at 0, 10, 30, and 45 minutes after ingest ion of the wine. Methylhistamine and methylimidazolacetic acid (gas chromat ography and mass spectrometry) were measured in urine 5 hours before and 5 hours after ingestion. Results: No significant differences in the occurrence of adverse reactions were noted after ingestion of either of the wines (McNemar test). At 10 min utes, a significant increase was observed in plasma histamine with histamin e-poor wine. No significant changes (Wilcoxon test) were observed in the me thylhistamine and methylimidazolacetic acid levels after ingestion of eithe r histamine-poor or histamine-rich wine. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that there is no correlation between th e histamine content of wine and wine intolerance. The increase of plasma hi stamine levels at 10 minutes with histamine-poor wine suggested the role of a histamine-releasing substance. The role of acetaldehyde is discussed.