According to two studies done by US researchers, a daily dose of peanut powder could help some children who are allergic to peanuts. These findings also offer hope for making a new treatment.

About 15 children were given peanut powder slowly increasing the quantity by teams at Duke University in North Carolina and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. About eight children got a placebo.

It was found that children given the treatment were able to have 15 peanuts before showing an allergic reaction.

Dr Wesley Burks of Duke, who helped lead the study, said, "We started out literally at about a one-thousandth of a peanut and built that up over time. When you take the daily dose it changes your immune system in a certain way and it raises the threshold of how much food it takes to cause a reaction."

About 12 children were given peanut powder from an age of 32 months to 5 years. They were observed to find out if they could eat peanuts after the daily treatment stopped safely. It was observed that nine of the 12 kids now have peanuts in their diets.

Burks said that more research was needed before developing an effective treatment.