The effect of relatively large doses of sesame oil on oxygen consumption and the antagonistic action of adrenocortical extract.

Abstract

Although it is generally concluded on the basis of the literature that sesame oil is physiologically inactive as a vehicle for fat soluble substances, there are indications that it is not as physiologically inactive as generally believed. Sesame oil in varying dosages has been reported to cause marked visceral damage in sarcoma bearing rats (Pollia, 1937); to shorten the mean survival time of adrenalectomized rats by 1.6 days as compared with their controls (Spurr and Kochakian, 1939); to produce toxic effects and death in normal rats as quickly as ten days after beginning the injections (Bruce and Tobin, 1940); to induce atrophy of the thymus in male rats (Clausen, 1940); to cause atrophy of the seminal vesicles and prostate gland in young mice (Crafts, 1942); and to stimulate the germinal epithelium of the ovary in young mice (Stein and Allen, 1942). It is the purpose of this investigation to show the effects on oxygen consumption of the whole organism