Is banana high in histamine?
Banana is mostly low in histamine: none was detected in tested bananas, but they contain putrescine, a related amine, and 4 of 10 published low-histamine diets exclude them.
- Histamine
- Not detected
- Other amines
- Notable levels
- Liberator
- Not on the lists we use
- DAO blocker
- No evidence
Why sources disagree. Bananas had no detectable histamine in tests, but they carry notable putrescine, an amine some researchers think competes with histamine for the DAO enzyme. Four of ten published diets exclude them.
What each source says
| Source | Verdict | What it says, in our words |
|---|---|---|
| Lab measurements, Spain 1 | Measured | No detectable histamine in 8 samples; putrescine averaged 37.94 mg/kg. |
| 10 published low-histamine diets 2 | 4 of 10 exclude banana. | |
| Clinical review, 2024 3 | Lists bananas among fruits a low-histamine diet avoids. | |
| SIGHI food list 4 | See source | See SIGHI's own list for its rating. |
Measured histamine
| Food tested | Samples | Histamine | Other amines |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bananas sold in Spain 1 (Table 2) | 8 | not detected | putrescine mean 37.94 mg/kg (25.50–49.49); tyramine mean 0.53 mg/kg |
| Range reported by other studies 1 (Table 4) | — | not detected | putrescine 15–50 mg/kg; cadaverine up to 10 mg/kg |
mg/kg = milligrams of histamine per kilogram of food. "Not detected" means below the laboratory's detection limit.
How freshness and processing change it
No study we found measured histamine or putrescine as bananas ripen, so advice to eat only green or only ripe bananas is untested. Our rating is for fresh bananas; banana chips and dried banana were not measured.
No histamine detected; notable putrescine. (measured)
Why we rate banana 1
Bananas are a good example of why "histamine" lists are really lists of several different things. Measured directly, bananas contain no detectable histamine: a University of Barcelona team tested eight bananas sold in Spain and none had any. What they did contain was putrescine, a related amine, at an average of 37.94 mg/kg and up to 49.49 mg/kg. Among the fruits the team measured, only citrus fruit had more.
Putrescine matters because some researchers think it competes with histamine for diamine oxidase (DAO), the gut enzyme that breaks histamine down. If that is true, a food rich in putrescine could let more of the histamine from the rest of a meal through. The evidence is thin, though. The 2021 review that discussed it found only old laboratory and animal studies, the most recent from 1985, and that one showed an effect in rats when putrescine was present at four to five times the level of histamine.
The published diets reflect that uncertainty. Four of the ten low-histamine diets in the 2021 review exclude banana, and a 2024 clinical review lists bananas among the fruits to avoid. The other six diets in the review do not exclude them.
We rate banana 1, "mostly low", and mark it disputed: no histamine in any measured sample, a real but unproven concern from putrescine, and lists that split. In practice that means a banana on its own is unlikely to be a large histamine load. If you do react to bananas, the putrescine question is the likely reason and is worth raising with your dietitian. Cherries, which had under a tenth of the putrescine in the same study, are an option if you want a fruit with fewer open questions.
Questions about banana and histamine
Are ripe bananas higher in histamine than green ones?
We found no study that measured this. The bananas tested were ordinary shop-bought fruit, and none had detectable histamine.
Evidence behind this page
Sources
- Sánchez-Pérez S, Comas-Basté O, Rabell-González J, Veciana-Nogués MT, Latorre-Moratalla ML, Vidal-Carou MC. Biogenic Amines in Plant-Origin Foods: Are They Frequently Underestimated in Low-Histamine Diets? Foods 7(12):205, 2018. doi:10.3390/foods7120205 (Sánchez-Pérez S et al. 2018)
- Sánchez-Pérez S, Comas-Basté O, Veciana-Nogués MT, Latorre-Moratalla ML, Vidal-Carou MC. Low-Histamine Diets: Is the Exclusion of Foods Justified by Their Histamine Content? Nutrients 13(5):1395, 2021. doi:10.3390/nu13051395 (Sánchez-Pérez S et al. 2021)
- Jochum C. Histamine Intolerance: Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Beyond. Nutrients 16(8):1219, 2024. doi:10.3390/nu16081219 (Jochum C 2024)
- Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance (SIGHI). Food compatibility list for histamine intolerance. histaminintoleranz.ch (accessed November 2026), 2026. Link (Swiss Interest Group Histamine Intolerance (SIGHI) 2026)