Sensitivity to alpha-amylcinnamic aldehyde and alpha-amylcinnamic alcohol.

Sensitivity to alpha-amylcinnamic aldehyde (alpha-AcAld) is apparently uncommon, but, like allergy to alpha-amylcinnamic alcohol (alpha-AcAlc), it often accompanies allergy to the perfume in Mycolog cream. Although alpha-AcAlc is a known ingredient, alpha-AcAld is not. However, gas-liquid chromatographic analysis shows alpha-AcAld to be present. Of fourteen persons sensitive to either chemical, ten reacted to both. Of these, one man and three women were markedly sensitive, and all three women had chronic recalcitrant vulvar eczema. That condition might have been the cause as well as the result of sensitization, but reexposure to a suspected product reproduced the eruption in both persons tested. Its use with other potent sensitizers, e.g., ethylenediamine, to treat irritations and chronic eczemas in an area of high absorption may partly explain development of allergy to a relatively weak sensitizer.