As this Hint is being written, it’s that time of year, when midsummer is in full bloom, and the weather is congenial to being in the great out-of-doors. People are cavorting in the woods and weeds, aka vegetation. Predictably, the wild parsnip is also in full bloom, seen easily in these parts along the roadsides in ditches as patches of tall weeds with dull yellow blossoms.
If you get close enough, the blossom shape is likened to an umbrella. If you brush against the plant and get some plant juice on your skin, it can be activated by long wavelengths of ultraviolet light, called UVA, to produce two unrelated reactions, which together are called phytophotodermatitis (PDD), or plant (phyto) light (photo) dermatitis.
The first reaction occurs about 24 to 48 hours after enough plant contact and sun exposure. It begins as redness that may swell and even blister. It hurts, not like poison ivy, which itches. In about 2-3 days after the redness and blistering subside, a brown pigmentation starts to appear in the area of contact, which has no symptoms. The brown color may last weeks to months or longer. It is not a scar and follows the pattern of contact with the plants.
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It creates rather odd formations of streaks and blotches. The amount of each reaction depends on the amount of plant sap you get on your skin. If it isn’t much, you may not notice the red reaction and later on discover the curious color patterns in those areas. The reaction is not an allergic reaction, which would be like poison ivy, where you are sensitized to a chemical first, and react to it later because of the immune memory first created. The PPD reactions are a phototoxic type, which means everyone who comes in contact with such plants and gets UV light exposure will have it happen.
Wild parsnip is only one of so many plants that contain chemicals that will produce this phenomenon. The class of chemicals is called psoralens (SOR-ah-lens) or furocoumarins. Four plant families have relatives that make psoralens and can cause plant “streaking.”
Wild parsnip and wild carrot are from the Umbelliferae or celery/carrot/parsley family. These beauties have blossoms or flowers shaped like umbrellas. There is also dill, fennel, Queen Anne’s lace, hogweed and other parsnips.
The Rutaceae family line includes many citrus plants. Lime is the most notorious because it is used to make margaritas. The bartender or lime handler may experience some dandy hand reactions from it, that are labeled, you guessed it, lime or margarita dermatitis, not to be confused with Lyme disease. An oil extract of citrus bergamot has been used in the past in many perfumes, which caused eruptions in neck areas with a lot with sun exposure.
Well known from the Moraceae family are fig plants. The eruption from figs is mostly on hands when the leaves of the plant are used for folk remedies or tanning. (What would Adam and Eve think!?) The ammi majus plant (a cousin of Queen Anne’s lace) is plentiful along the Nile river in Egypt and was known from about 2,000 B.C. to cause PPD. In those days leprosy was common. One form caused pigment loss. When it was realized that the plant would cause pigmentation, it became used medically to induce pigmentation in a skin disease known as vitiligo, a spontaneous pigment loss, which still has no known cause. Nobody wanted to be thought to be leper back then. Hence, the treatment. Fig was also employed in a similar medicinal manner.
Neither the redness nor the pigmentation is a serious problem. Only skin is affected. And most of the plants with psoralens contain them internally and have to be crushed or manipulated to access the chemicals. So, if you happen to develop odd or curious patterns of inflammation and subsequent puzzling patterns of skin pigmentation in linear or streaked formations after a summer outdoor frolic, you may realize you have been “streaked” by some plant.
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