After reading on-line in a folksy sort of place, that pectin in orange juice will help poison oak move on through, and, then, drinking a full glass of orange juice vibrant with pectin, I decide the intelligent thing to do would be to better understand what I just consumed. After reading the following, and remembering that apples are full of pectin, I will now eat an apple to ensure the oil of poison oak is flushing on through.
This is from Wikipedia on pectin.
Naturally, pectin in the form of complex, insoluble protopectin is part of the non-woody parts of terrestrial plants. In the middle lamella between plant cells, pectin helps to bind cells together and regulates water in the plant.
The amount and structure of the pectin differs between plants and also within a plant over time and in different parts of a plant. Tough parts contain more pectin than soft parts of a plant. During ripening, pectin is broken down; in this process the fruit gets softer as the cell walls break down.
Pectin is a natural part of human nutrition. The daily intake of pectin from fruit and vegetables can be estimated to be around 5 g (assuming consumption of approximately 500 g fruit and vegetable per day).
In human digestion, pectin is not used as nutrient, but passes through the small intestine more or less intact. In the large intestine and colon, microorganisms degrade pectin and liberate short-chain fatty acids that have positive influence on health (prebiotic effect). Pectin is thus a soluble dietary fiber.
Consumption of pectin has been shown to reduce blood cholesterol levels. The mechanism appears to be a decrease of viscosity in the intestinal tract, leading to a reduced absorption of cholesterol from bile or food.