Why doesn’t OmneDiem offer a pea-derived DAO?

OmneDiem has over 20 years of experience with Diamine Oxidase enzymes. The original inventor of the DAO enzyme solution is part of the OmneDiem Team. Given this long, strong history, OmneDiem has determined that creating a pea-derived DAO for commercial sale is not feasible. This is primarily due to significant manufacturing challenges, including scalability, cost-effectiveness, and enzymatic stability and activity. 

Porcine kidneys are a readily available, concentrated source of DAO within the existing food supply chain, and to date the porcine kidney protein extract is the only DAO source approved for use as a food supplement.4 Pea-derived DAO requires farming, lots of water, pesticide treatment, and a complex and less-established process of germinating peas, extracting the enzyme, and ensuring its stability through drying and formulation. This process is far more difficult to standardize and scale for mass production, making it less commercially viable than the well-understood, stable porcine source.

Crucially, porcine-derived DAO is the form backed by the clinical record. Open-label and placebo-controlled studies of oral porcine DAO supplementation report significant reductions in the frequency and intensity of histamine-intolerance symptoms,1 with benefit demonstrated in conditions such as chronic spontaneous urticaria2 and fibromyalgia.3 Roughly twenty studies to date have investigated DAO supplementation, with promising results4 — a body of evidence that pea-derived DAO simply does not have.

In addition, the lack of clinical evidence supporting safety and efficacy, the need to register as a New Dietary Ingredient (NDI), and potential allergenic concerns pose many challenges for pea-derived DAO. To our current knowledge, these challenges are not currently being met by any pea-derived DAO manufacturer.

Learn more in our article Pea vs. Porcine-Derived DAO

Pea vs Porcine DAO comparison

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Clinical Evidence & References

  1. Schnedl WJ, Lackner S, Enko D, et al. Diamine oxidase supplementation improves symptoms in patients with histamine intolerance. Food Sci Biotechnol. 2019;28(6):1779–1784. View study
  2. Yacoub MR, Ramirez GA, Berti A, et al. Diamine Oxidase Supplementation in Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria: A Randomized, Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Study. Int Arch Allergy Immunol. 2018;176(3–4):268–271. View study
  3. Okutan G, Ruíz Casares E, Períañez Parra JC, et al. Exogenous Supplementation with DAO Enzyme in Women with Fibromyalgia: A Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial. J Clin Med. 2023;12(20):6449. View study
  4. Comas-Basté O, Latorre-Moratalla ML, et al. Study protocol on the efficacy of a low-histamine diet and DAO enzyme supplementation in patients with histamine intolerance (review of porcine vs. plant DAO sources). Nutrients. 2024. View paper

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Cited studies refer to diamine oxidase (DAO) supplementation generally and are provided for educational purposes.