Teratogenicity and dominant-lethal studies with o-phenylphenol

o-Phenylphenol (OPP) was investigated for its teratogenicity and mutagenicity. Pregnant Wistar rats were given orally OPP in a daily dose of 150, 300, 600, or 1, 200mg/kg on days 6 to 15 of gestation. Three hundred mg per kg or more of OPP manifested acute toxicity to dams and suppressed their body weight gain. Daily dose of 1, 200mg/kg of OPP was lethal for 10 of 11 dams administered. In 600mg/kg group, the fetal resorption was increased and the body weight of survival young was decreased significantly. Small number of fetuses had anomalies in all groups. These results indicate that OPP is not teratogenic in rats. In the dominant-lethal assay, male C3H mice were administered orally 100 or 500mg/kg of OPP for 5 successive days. Mating trials began immediately after the treatment and continued for 6 weeks. No dominant-lethal mutations were induced in any group tested.