On 2016 Jun 18, Dirk Lachenmeier commented:

Thank you for the interesting report! Regarding the compounds responsible for allergic contact dermatitis, I believe that wormwood does not contain alcohol per se (this is probably a mismatch with the alcoholic beverage absinthe, which may contain Artemisia absinthium as ingredient). However, wormwood as many other Asteraceae plants contains sequiterpene lactones, which are known to cause such reactions from other species in the family, see e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12793186.

On 2016 Jun 18, Dirk Lachenmeier commented:

Thank you for the interesting report! Regarding the compounds responsible for allergic contact dermatitis, I believe that wormwood does not contain alcohol per se (this is probably a mismatch with the alcoholic beverage absinthe, which may contain Artemisia absinthium as ingredient). However, wormwood as many other Asteraceae plants contains sequiterpene lactones, which are known to cause such reactions from other species in the family, see e.g. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12793186.