Fenris Posted August 29, 2014 About 6 weeks ago my GF was feeling a bit down and asked if I had anything that might help; I have been taking some mucuna which seems to help me get through the winter so I offered her some. Within the first minute she was complaining of not being able to swallow properly, I assumed that the powder was a bit gluggy and had got stuck at the back of her throat, this got worse quickly and very soon progressed to uncontrollable vomiting. By that stage I figured she probably didn't have something gluggy stuck at the back of her throat. The vomiting must have lasted about 10 minutes or more, she was still having difficulty but her throat had eased up a bit, her eyes were watering like crazy and her nose was streaming. After all that settled down she came out in awful welts all over, but especially the inside of joints where blood vessels were near the surface, her inner arm and thighs and arm pits were probably the worst and up the sides of her torso as well. I had to get her some antihistamines just so she could sleep. The hives/rashes persisted for another 2 days even with the antihistamines. I had a good look to see if there were reports of anaphylactic symptoms from taking mucuna, but it seems so well tolerated the search didn't yield much. She was ribbing me for the rest of the week about how I tried to poison her, all in jest of course. It is now a running joke. Anyway it was such an unusual reaction to what was probably 1tsp of mucuna powder that I thought it worth mentioning. The welts were really large as well, approaching the size of a 20c piece, the smaller ones seemed to join up to bigger ones. I took some photos but I don't think she would appreciate me posting them Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Yawning Man Posted August 29, 2014 I can't seem to post links on this computer but some species of mucuna are covered in tiny hairs that can cause itchiness and rashes. Good chance it could be that? Almost like stinging nettle. Hope that helps. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
katu Posted August 29, 2014 Was she on any other drugs/medication? Thats a nasty allergic reaction if there ever was one. Thanks for sharing, hope she's ok.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fenris Posted August 31, 2014 No medication, no but she had an asthma attack the day before so we assumed it was an overactive immune response on that day. She wont try the mucuna again to find out, which is understandable. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
