FDA Poisonous Plant Database

AUTHOR(S): Illuminati, R.; Russo, R.; Guerra, L.; Melino, M. TITLE: Occupational airborne contact dermatitis in a florist. YEAR: 1988 CITATION: Contact Dermatitis, 18(4), 246 [English] FDA #: F06874 ABSTRACT: In the past few years, numerous cases of occupational contact dermatitis due to plants have been reported in florists and gardeners (1 3). Case Report A 35 year old woman consulted us with a suspected contact dermatitis of the face and hands dating from 1 year previously. The patient had been a florist for over 2 years. On examination, she presented redness, scaling and fissuring of the back and palm of the right hand and of the palm of the left hand; the pulps of the thumbs and index fingers were also affected. The skin of the face was red and scaly and the eyelids were swollen. Patch tests with the ICDRG standard series (Hermal trolab) showed strong positive reactions to the following substances: 48 h 72 h nickel sulphate 5% pet. + + + + + + cobalt chloride 1% pet. ++ ++ potassium dichromate 0.5% pet. ++ ++ thiomersal 0.1% pet. ++ +++ Further patch tests, performed with ethanol extracts of leaves and flowers of some plants that she suspected as the cause of her dermatitis, showed the following positive reactions: 48 h 72 h Alstroemeria + ++ Chrysanthemum x hortorum ++ ++ Tulipa + ++ Discussion Airborne contact dermatitis from plants is probably a frequent but under diagnosed problem. In our patient, the clinical appearance strongly suggested airborne contact dermatitis, because of the typical involvement of the upper eyelids and of the skin around the lips. We excluded an irritant airborne contact dermatitis on the basis of the symmetric disposition of the lesions and the results of patch tests. The clinical manifestations were definitely all related to plant allergens (sesquiterpene lactones and tuliposide A) and not to fungicides, which are widely used in plant cultivation and which are also responsible for airborne contact dermatitis, because our patient showed no reaction to a pesticide series of patch tests. Her clinical symptoms improved only after she had eliminated all members of offending families of plants from her shop, probably owing to the wide cross reactivity between different species of the Compositae (Asteraceae) family (1, 4 6). References 1. Mitchell J C, Dupuis G. Allergic contact dermatitis from sesquiterpenoids of the compositae family of plants. Br J Dermatol 1971:84:139 150. 2. De Corres L F. Contact dermatitis from Frullania, compositae and other plants. Contact Dermatitis 1984: 11: 74 79. 3. Schmidt R J, Kingston T. Chrysanthemum dermatitis in South Wales; diagnosis by patch testing with feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium) extract. Contact Dermatitis 1985: 13: 120 127. 4. Hausen B M. A simple method for extracting crude sesquiterpene lactones from Compositae plants for skin tests, chemical investigations and sensitizing experiments in guinea pigs. Contact Dermatitis 1977: 3: 58 60. 5. Santucci B1 Picardo M, Iavarone C, Trogolo C. Contact dermatitis to Alstroemeria. Contact Dermatitis 1985: 12: 215 219. 6. Dooms Goossens E, Debusscherere K M et al. Contact dermatitis caused by airborne agents. J Am Acad Dermatol 1986: 15: 1 10.

COMMON NAME:  STANDARD COMMON NAME:  FAMILY: Asteraceae LATIN NAME: Chrysanthemum x horlorum STANDARD PLANT NAME: Chrysanthemum hortorum Bailey

GRIN #: 2697 COMMON NAME:  STANDARD COMMON NAME:  FAMILY: Alstroemeriaceae LATIN NAME: Alstromeria STANDARD PLANT NAME: Alstroemeria ligtu L.

COMMON NAME:  STANDARD COMMON NAME:  FAMILY: Liliaceae LATIN NAME: Tulipa STANDARD PLANT NAME: Tulipa sp.