Allergic contact dermatitis from a wooden necklace

A 36-year-old female kitchenworker twice developed eczematous lesions corresponding exactly to the area around her neck where she had worn a wooden necklace. Contact dermatitis lasted longer than 1 week. The necklace consisted of 42 brown wooden beads and 63 other wooden parts, 0.5 to 3 cm diameter. Most parts could be identified as Cocobolo wood, Brazilian and East Indian rosewood, and teak. Patch tests with the pure constituents gave +++-reactions to three dalbergions and obtusaquinone, which are known to be the sensitizers of Cocobolo and the above-mentioned rosewoods. Because of these test results, the identification of the species by eye examination could be corroborated. Further detailed questioning revealed that the patient had played a recorder, probably made from Cocobolo (Dalbergia refusa), when a child, to which she unknowingly became allergic.