I was just chewing up some flowers on an anise plant and I feel like my throat has swollen a little bit. I am wondering if it might get worse or if it will subiside? Has been about 10 minutes. It might be fennel, not sure, has a liocrice taste. Little yellw flowers with fern like leaves.
It seems to be easing up a bit, I think I may have panicked a little bit.
OK, glad you’re all right. But the next time your throat starts to swell, ***call a GD ambulance while you still can! *** It happened to me out of the blue one Thanksgiving - I had always loved cranberries but they no longer liked me.
I’ve had that needle in my chest twice in my life, both times the space between your two posts could have ended me.
A friend of mine almost died last week from his throat closing. Because of a tick he suddenly became allergic to meat from mammals. Very scary, I surprised myself how fast I started going into panic mode.
Medical advice is best suited to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Please remember that the first allergic reaction is usually mild compared to any subsequent ones. If it happens again don’t tell yourself, “Oh yeah, it resolved on its own last time.”
Get Help!
If tasting unknown plants is your thing, good luck, but I would stay clear of the Umbelliferae unless I were absolutely sure of the species. They may look (and taste!) much the same; but some are really poisonous!
Are you dead yet OP?
Update, all is well, back to normal in less than 1 hour. Thanks
Pretty surprised no one mentioned Benadryl (diphenhydramine).
You have to take it as soon as you believe that you are experiencing an allergic reaction.
No waiting till your throat swells up and you can’t swallow, (or breathe).
Benadryl is part of the three drug cocktail you would get in an emergency room for anaphylaxis or any strong allergic reaction. While it is going to take around thirty minutes to have any effect when taken orally, that will buy you time to figure out what’s happening.
The best OTC drug to have at home.
Why were you “chewing up some flowers on an anise plant” to begin with?
because they’re edible?
My son commented on how sweet they were, I picked a small bunch and he warned me that I might have too many for a sample. Right after sampling the flowers I compared that to the leaves which seemed much less flavorful but had a stronger tang affect.
Good to hear old bean.
Well so are cockroaches. I can’t say I’ve ever felt compelled to eat flowers but I guess anise flowers are special.
The plant was actually fennel, I mix that up with anise sometimes as they are similar in taste and appearance. It is an edible plant but it turns out some people do have unfavorable reactions to it.
Do you have any reactions to cockroaches? They are pretty high in protein.
Broccoli is a flower.
+1.
ID the plant for certain so you know. And discuss with your doctor. You may want to keep an Epi-Pen handy.
Anise and fennel both have similar chemicals that give it the licorice-y taste, so a reaction to one might mean you’d react to the other. While neither is a super common hidden ingredient in foods, you might be surprised where they’d turn up, and there might be other things you’d react to as well.
Children’s liquid benadryl in an adult dose (50 mg) is the fastest-acting.
Those melt-on-your-tongue benadryls are also an option.
I keep the liquid stuff around because I’ve had anaphylaxis from tree nuts, and nearly so from a bee sting. I also always have an epi-pen, and family/friends know where the epi-pen is kept in case they need to get it.