Abstract: The putative allergens,clinical manilestations and patch tests of traditional Chinese medicinal materials (CMM) which cause contact dermatitis (CD) are studied in this paper.14 patients with CMM CD and 351 controls were patch tested with the standard series of allergen produced by the Beijing Medical University and the suspected drugs been tised.It was found that most CMM CD were caused by the CMM frequently used topically for"analgesic and antiphlogistic".All the patients patch tested withsuspected drugs gave positive results.Some patients also reacted to fragrance mix,colophony,rubber mix and ammoniated mercury.The positive rates of fragrance mix and colophony in CMM CD patients were significantly higher than controls while rubber mix and ammoniated mercury were not.The results indicated that the topical analgesic and antiphlogistic CMM especially those containing fragrance may be liable to cause sensitization.CMM CD can be diagnosed by patch testing the putative drugs.

Key words: Chinese medicinal materials, Contact dermatitis, Adverse reactions