Contact dermatitis to multiple exotic woods

Occupational contact dermatitis to individual wood species from foreign countries, such as Asia, Africa, Central America, and South America, has been described. This report concerns the case of a domestic woodworker who developed allergic contact dermatitis shortly after beginning to work with multiple exotic woods. Patch testing with domestic and exotic wood fresh sawdust samples, 1% and 10% in petrolatum, yielded strong positive reactions to six exotic woods: zericote, pao ferro, cocobolo, becote, macassar ebony, and padauk. Later testing confirmed sensitivity to the allergenic quinonoid constituents in pao ferro (R-3,4-dimethoxydalbergione), cocobolo (obtusaquinone), and macassar ebony (macassar quinone).