The sap from the fig tree can irritate your skin/mouth. Last year I ate a cookie while working with some cuttings and my mouth went numb. Sometimes I also get a bit numb when I eat the fruit. If the fig is fully ripe, this sensation should be greatly minimized. Interestingly enough, I don't have any issue with the milky sap irritating the skin on my hands or arms.

~james

Thanks James for the tip on the sap. In this case I don't think that's the cause, but I'll pay attention to that.

Steve

Steve, are you eating the figs whole with the outside skin? could there be anything *on* the figs to which you're reacting? I think the problem with kiwis is most likely a high level of citric acid (if I remember rightly, they're an exceptional source of vitamin C), but figs don't have that to deal with. Anyone know of anything else in particular that fig fruit might be high in, other than decent fiber? I've never had enough fresh figs beyond a dozen or so in a day, to have experienced a problem, so this sounds unique. Hope it's temporary only, so you can keep on enjoying them.

(I had my first fresh fig of the season this past weekend, the lone breba on my Flanders ripened, after great anticipation watching it start to soften. It was very good, large, pale green skin, with a light amber-pink interior, like White Zinfandel in color, but not terribly sweet, maybe because of recent rains that week. It'll be at least a month before any main crop figs are ripe, so I savored it as my prelude to a hopefully prolific season on the other figs.)

Sherry

The probable source of the sensitivity is the milky sap of the figs (ficin). If we are not very careful when we eat a lot of fresh figs, my wife and I both experience similar symptoms - a sore tongue, sore gums and mouth, and cracks at the corners of the lips. If the figs are not completely ripe, even though most of the fig is ready to eat, a bit of milky sap oozes from the stem end. Ficin acts in a way similar to a digestive enzyme. It has been used as an antihelminthic (dewormer) in some cultures. One way to minimize the amount of ficin you consume is to only eat the figs when they are absolutely ripe. (Of course, by that time, the birds have probably eaten most of them!) You can also cut or pinch off the stem, which gets rid of most of the ficin. You can also peel the fig, but I like the texture of the skin. When I only pick a few figs from a tree, I don't have a problem, but when I have as much contact with the leaves and figs as I do now, I develop a rash on my hands and forearms. (We currently have about 6 1-gallon bags of fresh figs in the freezer that we will probably process as preserves.) I wear long sleeves and wash my arms with detergent immediately after picking the figs. I may start wearing gloves as well.

Recently I was doing some airlayering and pinching. I wasn't paying attention to some of the oozing branches which touched the left side of my face. Anyway, I may have ignored the initial discomfort but now, I have several linear burns in the same area and they are taking a very long time to disappear. In fact I think the UV from the sun tatooed these lines a little deeper.
Anyone else experience the same effect on the skin?

James, Sherry, Mountain Man, and Plum Fan, thank you all for your thoughtful and informative feedback. I've reduced my consumption and have been peeling the skin, and so far, so good. I'll try to up my consumption and see how it goes.

On the subject of ripeness, hopefully by the fall I'll get better at discerning. So far, I'm batting about .333, although luckily a semi-unripe fig ain't so bad. If when I pick it skin near the tip tears, it's usually ripe.

Steve

actually I think the soreness may not have to do with ficin, but with the roughness of some fig varieties skins. I have 3 fig varieties: Turkey Brown, Black Mission and Violette de Bordeaux. out of those, the Black mission have this rough sandpaper-like skin that can rub my tongue and gums raw when I eat them. I just ate a whole bunch of figs and my gums are sore. I am making sure I'm not eating the end close to the stem which is where the sap is. In my experience, I found something that helps: leaving the figs to sit around for a while. After some handling and a few days, the roughness of the skin diminishes considerably. I don't peel the skin as I feel that's a "stupid pampered city folk" thing to do, and usually in fruits the skin contains a lot of good nutrients.

Hi everyone, I am from South Africa and make jam every year. I have to pick them just before they ripen, or I don't have a chance against the birds. My problem is, the skin around my cuticles is sore and skin broken and swollen. This is the first time. (and third harvest) this has happened. I have cut up a lot of figs this year, made 29 bottles already and have about 4000 grams cut up frozen. this is not for the faint hearted!

Use gloves.