Birch Pollen and Aspirin Psoriasis

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Abstract
Generalized pustular psoriasis, reportedly due to an exquisite hypersensitivity to salicylates of tree, shrub, and medical origin, was observed in a six-year-old child. In an effort to account for the explosive appearance of the eruption each April he spent in the eastern Pennsylvania mountains, sweet birch (Betula lenta) pollen was incriminated as the exciting agent since the tree produces large quantities of methyl salicylate (sweet birch oil). The biochemistry of the pharmacopeia as well as of plant life reveal many sources of salicylate.