Pleasant natural scent with unpleasant effects: cluster headache-like attacks triggered by Umbellularia californica

Umbellularia californica, a shrub or tree indigenous to southwestern Oregon and northern California, is commonly known as headache tree, probably because it is reported that its scent can cause headache. Here, we report the case of a 69-year-old Italian gardener, affected during his young adult age by cluster headache, who, 10 years from his last cluster episode, developed shorter-lasting cluster-like headache attacks after and at any time he was exposed to U. californica scent. The present case indicates that, even though endogenous mechanisms causing the cluster headache were no longer present, susceptibility to exogenous triggers remains active in this patient, and suggests that identification of the constituent(s) of U. californica responsible for triggering cluster headache-like attacks may help in the understanding of the hitherto elusive mechanism of cluster headache.