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Aerobiological, clinical, and immunobiochemical studies on Alstonia scholaris pollen from eastern India

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Abstract

Alstonia scholaris or Indian devil tree is a common, evergreen, tropical tree of the Apocynaceae family. The objectives of this study were (a) to observe the seasonal variation of A. scholaris pollen in the atmosphere of an industrial and rural area of West Bengal, India by conducting a 2-year aerobiological survey with a Burkard personal volumetric sampler, (b) to study its allergenicity in the local population by in vivo (skin-prick test) and in vitro tests (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and dot blotting), (c) to identify the immunoglobulin E (IgE)-binding proteins present in the pollen extract (sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting), (d) to study its chemical composition. A. scholaris pollen were present in the air from September until November. They contained 14.3 % carbohydrate, 9.2 % lipid, and 4.3 % protein. Among 140 respiratory allergic local patients, 28.57 % showed positive skin reaction to A. scholaris pollen extract. Twelve protein bands in the range of 94.4–13.3 kDa were observed in the pollen extract. Seven IgE-binding proteins were found. Among them, one component of 29.9 kDa was the most important in A. scholaris pollen extract. This component could be purified and would be helpful in the diagnosis and therapy of A. scholaris pollen-susceptible patients.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India for providing fellowship to the first author (MMH). Authors are also thankful to Dr. I. Roy, Dr. S. Chatterjee, and the staff members of the Institute of Child Health, Kolkata for their kind help in performing clinical investigation. Mr. Chanchal Chakraborty of the Department of Plant Biology, Bose Institute, Calcutta, India is also acknowledged for his technical assistance in SEM.

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  1. Jyotshna Mandal

    Present address: Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, 731235, West Bengal, India

    Mir Musaraf Hussain & Kashinath Bhattacharya

  2. Division of Plant Biology, Bose Institute, 93/1 Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, Calcutta, 700 009, India

    Jyotshna Mandal

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  1. Mir Musaraf Hussain
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Correspondence to Kashinath Bhattacharya.

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Hussain, M.M., Mandal, J. & Bhattacharya, K. Aerobiological, clinical, and immunobiochemical studies on Alstonia scholaris pollen from eastern India. Environ Monit Assess 186, 457–467 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-013-3390-1

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