Acute toxicity of refined wild apricot oil in rats

Abstract

Wild apricot is distributed widely in China, and its kernel has been used as a raw material for oils and proteins. Although wild apricot oil is a rich source of unsaturated fatty acids, there are few reported findings on the toxicological aspects of pressed wild apricot oil. Thus an acute toxicity study was carried out with a refined wild apricot oil in albino Sprague-Dawley rats to assess its suitability as edible oil. We included 2.25 mg amygdalin/ml in refined apricot oil and used the maximum tolerated dose test to evaluate the acute toxicity of the refined apricot oil. It did not result in any kind of abnormal behaviour in rats. No mortality was observed during 17 days in male rats or 15 days in female rats after treatment.