A 12-month study of policosanol oral toxicity in Sprague Dawley rats.

Policosanol is a natural mixture of higher aliphatic primary alcohols. Oral toxicity of policosanol was evaluated in a 12-month study in which doses from 0.5 to 500 mg/kg were given orally to Sprague Dawley (SD) rats (20/sex/group) daily. There was no treatment-related toxicity. Thus, effects on body weight gain, food consumption, clinical observations, blood biochemistry, hematology, organ weight ratios and histopathological findings were similar in control and treated groups. This study supports the wide safety margin of policosanol when administered chronically.