kguske wrote: |
Thanks, aruzinsky!
Can you explain what you mean by "its LD50 for rats"? |
It is the amount per bodymass that kills half the population of rats. Ideally, one would want to know the LD50 for humans but that is rarely known. For example, according to
http://www.thegoodscentscompany.com/data/rw1008472.html (under "safety)
, the rat LD50 of methyl salicylate, a common ingredient of root beer, is 2642 mg/kg. If I want to use a similar concentration of another compound, I first check to make sure that it LD50 is not less than an order of magnitude, or I adjust the concentration accordingly. For example, before testing methyl benzoate as a substitute for methyl salicylate in root beer, I looked up its rat LD50 here
http://www.thegoodscentscompany.com/data/rw1015012.html
and found that it was 2170 mg/kg. Thus, I feel safe about using methyl benzoate at equal or less concentration than I would use methyl salicylate in root beer.