has anyone tasted or grown Santana apple?
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I have a small santana tree. It is however not fruiting yet. I tasted it once years ago in from the shop. Was a good apple. But not something really special. But i might be spoiled. Our “standard” cheapest apple is usually elstar. Compared to red delicious imo thats worlds apart.
If your interested in santana for its possibility (not guarantee! be careful) to be eaten by people with an mild apple allergy.
You could also have a look at these websites.
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Thanks for the info. I was interested since my son has an allergy to apples. I found the information on high polyphenols in mostly older apples interesting. Need to do more research on that.
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I am sorry to hear your son has an apple allergy. Your a good dad for trying to help him. I haven’t extensivly read about the subject. But what i came acros was that there seems to be a link between birch pollen allergy and apple allergy. And posible also a nut (hazelnut) allergy.
Confusingly there is a research paper that states that granny smith might be a low alergenic apple. However the german website lists it as a high alergy apple (80 people did not tolerate it and 0 did tolerate it.)
There are many resaearch papers on apple allergy. The seem to discover valid and significant things. Although i also see they usualy only get 75% or lower of the people tested to not have an alergic reaction. I would gues this means there are multiple different sources of the allergy, like a cros reaction to birch pollen allergy. (Mal d 1 and Bet v1 proteine) but also possible polyphenolic content. I also spoke to someone who only had alergic reactions from the skin of the fruit. (multiple fruits, do not remember the whole list) but he just peeled the skin off and it was fine. Also heating the fruit solved it for him.
However i want to caution against trying out to much yourself. If you read the scientific papers you see quite a few people stil had alergic reactions. If your read the popular media, they make it seem as a “solved problem” witch it is not. Or at least not a 100% solved. So if you try it out yourself, take appropiate measures. (epi pen? near a hospital? ask your doctor to be present?)
The same universitry that developed santana also made elise. That apple also seems to have lower amount of alergic reactions. And stores for longer and has a different taste profile.
Elise-appel weet appelallergie te omzeilen (use google translate. If the translation fails, let me know. i speak both dutch and english so can help translate if needded)
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jsfa.6448
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jsfa.10561?utm_source=TrendMD&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Journal_of_the_Science_of_Food_and_Agriculture_TrendMD_0
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I saw that inconsistency. It’s reasonable to have skepticism of studies until they are repeated with the same results. I will start looking for high polyphenol apples to grow. Fruit growing is a hobby for me so that just adds some interest. Many of the apples in the German study are probably not available in the US but I haven’t started to look yet.
Haven’t been able to find Santana or Elise apple trees or scion in the US. If anyone knows a source of seeds of Santana and/or Elise I can get that would be a last resort.