Don't mess with a mango tree

    There's a huge beautiful mango tree in my new place. A week ago I spend an hour working with a hand saw to cut off a limb that grew into the house power line. It required a few cuts while balancing on the top step of an A ladder, and hanging on to branches with my free hand. Needless to say I got rained on with leaves, pieces of bark and saw dust.


    The next day I came down with bad pain. The skin hurt on my back and under the arms, the pain is something like a bad sunburn but it feels like it's under the skin rather than the outside. Everything hurts, lying down in bed, leaning back in a chair, even the touch of a shirt. After 3 days I started to really worry as the pain wasn't subsiding. A week later with the pain getting worse I started to think that I will have to spend the rest of my life like this.


    Trying to figure out what might have happened I searched the internet for skin pain like mine. There were a few illnesses that had these symptoms but the sudden onset in my case eliminated them in my mind. Finally considering the timing of what I was doing just before the pain started, I googled mango and toxic. Sure enough this popped up Mango - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    Quote

    Potential for contact dermatitis


    Mango peel and sap contains urushiol, the chemical in poison ivy and poison sumac that can cause urushiol-induced contact dermatitis in susceptible people. Cross-reactions between mango contact allergens and urushiol have been observed. Those with a history of poison ivy or poison oak contact dermatitis may be most at risk for such an allergic reaction. Urushiol is also present in mango leaves and stems. During mango's primary ripening season, it is the most common source of plant dermatitis in Hawaii.

    and then this Urushiol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    Quote

    Urushiol is an oily organic allergen found in plants of the family Anacardiaceae, especially Toxicodendron spp. (e.g., poison oak, poison ivy, poison sumac). It causes an allergic skin rash on contact.

    Let me tell you guys this is some bad pain which puts your life on hold. The prospect of living with it for another 1 - 4 weeks is nasty. At least I didn't have a reaction on the outside of the skin, and the stress of not knowing what happened to me is gone. I've never had a reaction to poison Ivy, poison oak or anything like that. I guess there's a first time for everything. Mango.. who knew :dumb:


    My neighbor has a massive mango tree I had planned on raiding once they ripened up (he just lets them fall and rot). I will keep this in mind if I decide to go about it. Plenty of topical OTC meds I am sure would assuage the pain.

    That oil stuff is rough. I dont react to it so Im very lucky but there are some things you can do to prevent the reaction. The oil actually doesnt affect a mucus membrane so eating it wont cause any problems in your mouth and throat. I saw somewhere that there is a way to "immunize" yourself by eating small doses of the oil until you build a tolerance for it. Not sure if it really works but might be something to consider. Unfortunately there isnt much you can do once you've made contact with it. Anti-histamines and special soap only provide a little temporary relief.


    Sorry to hear that you got it so bad.

    In the immunization article I read it talked about eating poison ivy leaves:crazy:. I dont know how much of the oil is present in the mango fruit.


    My mother gets a really bad reaction to poison ivy and she's had limited help from benedryl but hers are pretty sever and may be more of an allergic reaction than yours.

    the few times i had that kind of problem i had a burn on my skin. so i wouldn't know how you could get the poison inside the skin without damaging your outer part.

    I remember when I was younger a summer camp counselor got it on her forearms, she had benadryl on her arms for weeks!!! I feel for ya Dan!!:@

    Mango trees are the most dangerous trees out there, except Robollini palms. You would believe some of the injuries we'd see at Jackson when dudes would fall out of trees during mango season. I do love me some mango though.

    Hey Dan, Sorry you got sick, but at least there is bright side. You found out you were susceptible to this problem without too much exposure. I'm actually familiar with the toxicity of mango's as it happened to my dad about 10-15 years ago. In his case, his lesson was a bit more expensive.


    He was under a wet mango tree picking mango's on a ladder after a rainstorm, each time he pulled a mango off the tree water from the leaves and branches of the tree rained down on him. The next day he woke up completely covered in a crazy skin rash that ended up being pretty severe for a while. He still eats mango's but stays far away from mango trees.


    Cut that sucker down as punishment!

    Quote from monster slayer

    Let me know if this is available to you, if not i will send to you some of this right away. it will kill the pain and take any soaring away. Guaranteed, some old mayan wisdom.


    Sending "magic" powder from Mexico to the USA... That reminds me something... :rolleyes1:



    Dan: Get well soon and let us all know how did you manage to deal with it.

    Marco Melis

    A bad day fishing is ALWAYS better than a good day at work.

    Today is the first day that the symptoms are only barely perceptible, it's nice to be alive again. The pain lasted 2.5 weeks. I did nothing but wait it out as Benedryl capsules and lotion didn't do anything, pain reliever had little effect so I only took it for one day. Don't mess with a mango tree :)

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member to leave a comment.

Register a new account
Sign in now