Photosensitization induced by monoglycerol paraaminobenzoate; a case report.

The purpose of a sun tan or sun-filtering preparation is to produce a tanning of the skin with a minimum of erythema after exposure to sunlight. Thus, an ideal preparation would be one which filtered out all the light rays shorter than 3,200 angstrom units and allowed the longer ones to pass. Despite the wide use of many organic chemicals to produce this effect, dermatitis from sun tan preparations has rarely been reported. Paraaminobenzoic acid and certain of its esters have been shown to be excellent filtering agents against the erythema-producing part of the sunlight spectrum, i. e., rays of 2,500 to 3,200 angstrom units. 1 Because of its excellent filtering capacity, its lack of odor and its lack of staining properties, monoglycerol paraaminobenzoate (an ester of paraaminobenzoic acid) has been incorporated in a number of commercial sun tan preparations. Baer and Meltzer 2 reported a case of