Abstract
Acute toxicity of Formalin-guaiacol (FG) was studied in comparison with that of Formocresol (FC), guaiacol and cresol with use of male mice of ddY strain weighing about 20g each. Each drug was diluted in olive oil to be administered orally to the mice which had not been fed for 20 hours prior to the test. Toxic symptoms and changes in the body weight gain were observed and the number of death was recorded for 7 days ; LD_<50> with 95% confidence limits calculated by Litchfield-Wilcoxon's method was : 1.81 (1.56∿2.10)g/kg for FG, 1.72 (1.51∿1.96)g/kg for FC, 0.89 (0.75∿1.05)g/kg for guaiacol and 0.76(0.66∿0.87)g/kg for cresol. No significant difference was found between LD_<50> of FG and that of FC or between LD_<50> of guaiacol and that of cresol (p<0.05). Little difference was observed between guaiacol and cresol, and FG bore much resemblance to FC concerning toxic symptoms and changes in the body weight gain of surviving mice induced by oral administration of each drug. From the above it was considered that FG was less toxic than guaiacol and than cresol and that toxicity of FG was as potent as that of FC.
