Toxicity Profile for Benzaldehyde (1989)

Abstract

Benzaldehyde is reported to be a skin and eye irritant for man. Local reactions indicative of skin sensitization have been induced in a number of patients. Benzaldehyde was generally of moderate to low acute oral and dermal toxicity in laboratory animals. Effects on the central nervous system were seen in rodents given single doses orally or by injection. In short-term oral studies, the kidney, brain and forestomach were the main sites of toxic injury in rats, with the kidney also being the principal target in mice. Preliminary reports from long-term feeding studies noted benign tumours of the forestomach of mice, but no evidence of carcinogenicity in rats. Benzaldehyde caused chromosome effects in mammalian cells in culture, but was not mutagenic in Ames bacterial tests.