Hi,
I'm working on a list of foods with lectins for a website; seems they're in
almost everything.  Many are in grains and beans, sometimes several
different lectins in one type.  Also found in some fish and shellfish,
chicken.  Since they seem so wide spread in foods, I wonder if there are
others that have not even been discovered yet.

That was actually my reason for joining this list.  I'm curious if lectin
researchers 'do or do not' eat foods with lectins.  Have tried the Eat Right
diet (A blood type), packed with lectins, with detriment to health. Have
lupus, an auto-immune disease.  Also have done testing with blood to foods
to see if agglutination occurred as cited in 'Eat Right' with inconsistent
results to those claimed.

Cheryl
-------
This is what I've found so far.
No detailed info found on these, but also noted for having lectins are:
apple, avocado, carrot, chicken, crab, cranberry, sea eel, freshwater eel,
flounder, gingko biloba, halibut (Atlantic, Pacific and Greenland - all
different lectins), kiwi, litchi, lobster, okra, mushroom, poppyseed,
pumpkin seed, quinoa, edible snail, sole, turbot, shrimp, cherimoya, mango.

Info on these below from 'Handbook of Plant Lectins', Van Damme, Pusztai:

Shallot: Lectin isolated from the bulbs.  It is a minor bulb protein.  It is
highly specific for mannose.  It agglutinates rabbit but not human
erythrocytes

Onion: Lectin in the bulb, a minor protein.  It is mannose-specific.  It
agglutinates rabbit but not human erythrocytes.

Leek: The lectin is isolated from the leaves of the leek.  It is a minor
protein and is highly specific for mannose.  It agglutinates rabbit but not
human erythrocytes.

Garlic:   4 lectins, 2 in bulb, 1 leaves, 1 in roots; human serum contains
natural antibodies to the mannose-specific lectins in garlic bulbs.

Peanut:  Lectins have been isolated from the seeds, the nodules and the
roots of peanuts. PNA will not agglutinate human erythrocytes unless the
cells are treated with neuraminidase.  PNA is a mitogen for human blood
peripheral lymphocytes, colonic cells, and stimulates proliferation in
colonic explants from patients with inflammatory bowel disease and colon
polyps in vitro.

Chick pea, Garbanzo, Ceci Bean: The lectin in the seeds of chick peas
agglutinates all human erythrocytes. The lectin is non-mitogenic to human
lymphocytes.

Taro: The lectin in taro is found in the tubers, and is very abundant.  It
agglutinates rabbit but not human erythrocytes.

Pumpkin, Marrow, Winter Squash: The lectin was isolated from the phloem
exudate of Curcubita maxima.  It is specific for oligomers of
N-acetylglucosamine.

Pumpkin, Summer Squash, Gourd: The lectin was found in the fruit of
cucurbita pepo.  It is strongly inhibited by chitin oligosaccharides but
only weakly by N-acetylglucosamine.  It also reacts with internal
N-acetylglucosamine residues. The lectin agglutinates rabbit erythrocytes.

Tamarillo,  Tree Tomato: This lectin is in the fruit of the Tree Tomato. In
the fruit, the lectin is mostly located in the cell wall of fruit tissues
and the seed coat.  The lectin agglutinates rabbit erythrocytes.  It showed
no mitogenic activity against human lymphocytes.

Soybean,  Soya Bean: Soybean lectin agglutinates red cells from humans and
several animal species.  It also precipitates human A1 blood group
substances, but reacts poorly with A2 and B substances and not at all with H
substances.  Soybean agglutinin in the diet reduces the growth rate of young
monogastric animals and induces does- and polyamine-dependent and reversible
hyperplastic growth of the small intestine and pancreatic hypertrophy.  The
lectin in the duodenal lumen stimulates pancreatic secretion via pancreatic
cholecystokinin-A receptors and interferes with the absorption of Fe2+.

Jerusalem Artichoke:  The lectin is found in the tubers of Jerusalem
artichokes.  It is inhibited by N-acetyl-D-galactosamine,
N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, and galactose.   The HTA lectin has the highest
agglutination titre with blood group A erythrocytes in humans.  HTA-I and
HTA-II agglutinate rabbit erythrocytes.

Barley: The barley lectin was first isolated from barley embryos.  It has
also been isolated from roots and leaves of adult plants.  It has a
specificity towards GlcNAc.  It most probably has a higher affinity for
GlcNAc-oligomers than for GlcNAc, like the closely related wheat germ
agglutinin (WGA).  The barley lectin agglutinates human and rabbit
erythrocytes.

Lentil:  Lentil lectin is in the seeds.  The lectin binds to multiple sugar
residues more than single alpha-mannose residue.  It agglutinates human and
rabbit erythrocytes.  LcH is a mitogen.

Tomato:  Tomato lectin was first isolated from ripe fruits.  It has
specificity towards GlcNAc-oligomers.  LEA agglutinates human and animal
erythrocytes.  It is non-mitogenic for mouse and chicken lymphocytes.  It is
non-toxic to several insects.  It occurs in all tissues of the tomato plant
but is located predominantly in the locular fluid of the ripe fruits.

Banana:  The lectin is in the fruit.It does not agglutinate untreated human
or sheep erythrocytes but does agglutinate rabbit red blood cells.  Banana
lectin stimulates T-cell proliferation.  IgG4 antibodies to banana were
found to occur more frequently than expected.

Rice: Lectin was first isolated from rice bran.  It is also found in the
rice embryos.  It is specific for GlcNAc and its oligomers.  Rice lectin
agglutinates human and rabbit erythrocytes. It is mitogenic against mouse
splenic lymphocytes and human peripheral lymphocytes.  Rice lectin has
activity against the cowpea weevil.

Scarlet Runner Bean: There are two lectins in scarlet runner beans, only one
stimulates mitosis of lymphocytes. It has low agglutinating activity.  This
lectin is found in the seeds.  It agglutinates all types of human
erythrocytes.

Lima Bean:  Two lectins were found in the seeds of lima beans.  They
specifically bind glycoconjugates containing terminal non-reducing
alpha-GalNAc residues.  They also exhibit blood group specificity towards
human type A erythrocytes. Lima bean lectin is mitogenic for T- but not
B-lymphocytes.

Kidney bean:
Classification code: PHA-E, PHA-L, Pinto lectin
The lectin is in the seeds.  The ­E and ­L agglutinate erythrocytes and  are
mitogenic and agglutinating to lymphocytes respectively.  There are many
different varieties of beans included in this grouping.  The lectins  may
vary slightly between different types of these beans.  PHA is present in all
parts of the bean plant, the amounts change during the life of the plant.
PHA is highly reactive with most differentiated mammalian cells which
express membrane glycoconjugates containing  complex oligosaccharide chains.
It agglutinates erythrocytes of most animal species.  It is also a very
strong mitogen.  It can react with mast cells causing and IgE-independent
histamine release and degranulation in vitro.  Pha reacts with the insulin
receptor of fat cell membranes and mimics most of the biological effects of
insulin.  At high levels of dietary intake, PHA appears to be nutritionally
toxic for most animals, including insects, rats, birds, and humans.

Garden Pea:  The lectin is in the seed, and one in the root of the plant.
The lectin is specific to mannos and glucose.  Pea lectin is a mitogen.  It
is non-toxic to several insects.  The specificity is similar to Lens
culinaris.

Blackberry: The lectin is specific for glucosamine oligomers.

Elderberry:  SNA-III is found in elderberry seeds.  It agglutinates animal
and human erythrocytes.  It has a slight preference for type A over type B
and O erythrocytes.  Elderberry fruits contain several different lectins.

Rye: The lectin is in the rye embryos.  It is specific for GlcNAc.  It
agglutinates human and rabbit erythrocytes.  It is very closely related to
wheat germ agglutinin (WGA).

Potato:  The lectin was first found in the tubers.  It is specific towards
oligomers of N-acetylglucosamine.  GlcNAc does not inhibit the agglutination
of STA.  The potato lectin agglutinates all human and animal erythrocytes,
including bovine, sheep, goat, horse, pig, cat, guinea pig, rat, mouse and
rabbit.  The lectin is non-toxic to insects.  The lectin content varies
considerably according to the variety.

Wheat:  Wheat germ agglutinin was isolated originally from wheat germs.  It
is specific for GlcNAc and GlcNAc-oligomers.  It agglutinates both human and
animal erythrocytes.  It is toxic to several insects.  WGA in the diet of
rats reduced the digestibility and utilization of dietary proteins and the
growth of the rats.  The lectin binds to the epithelial cells and is a
growth factor for the intestine.  WGA inhibits herpes simplex virus
absorption and rabies virus attachment to susceptible cells.  WGA can
inhibit the histamine release induced by basic secretagogues from mast
cells.  WGA  is virtually identical with the lectins found in numerous other
triticum species, such as, T. bicorne, T. comosum, T. speltoides, T.
umbellulatum, etc.

Broad Bean, Fava Bean:  The lectin is in the seeds. It is specific for
mannose/glucose and oligosaccharides containing these sugars in the
alpha-configuration.  The lectin agglutinates human, mouse, rat, rabbit and
guinea pig erythrocytes, but not sheep erythrocytes.  The lectin is
mitogenic to lymphocytes.  VFA in the diet of rats had no effect on the
animals.

Mung Bean: The lectin is in the seeds.  It agglutinates trypsinised rabbit
erythrocytes but not human erythrocytes.

Corn, Maize:  The lectins are in the kernels of  corn.  ZMA-I interacts with
GalNAc, and ZMA-II with mannose.  The corn lectin agglutinates rabbit
erythrocytes.