A 69-year-old Ukrainian retired mining engineer who had lived in Australia for the last 5 years was referred from the emergency department after presenting with an anaphylactic reaction. He had been constipated for 3 days, without responding to the usual purgatives. His wife, a Russian-trained doctor, suggested an enema with chamomile tea. She made 1 l of tea with a commercial chamomile tea bag and administered the enema through a plastic tube. Within 5 minutes, the patient developed flushing and an urticarial rash on the insides of his arms, associated with dyspnoea. His wife gave him a dose of prednisolone orally and called an ambulance. The patient was dyspnoeic, but had not wheezed on auscultation. His blood pressure was 150 mmHg systolic, and his pulse rate was 96. He was taken to the emergency department where the urticaria resolved over 3 h.