The Toxicological Assessment of Cyclopentyl Methyl Ether (CPME) as a Green Solvent

Cyclopentyl methyl ether (CPME) has been used in chemical synthesis as an alternative to hazardous solvents. According to some earlier investigation by others, CPME has low acute or subchronic toxicity with moderate irritation and negative mutagenicity and negative skin sensitization (Local Lymph Node Assay). Calculated Permitted Daily Exposure (PDE) value of CPME obtained by our 28-day oral toxicity test is 1.5 mg/day, and CPME is thus assumed to be a class 2 equivalent solvent in the ICH (International Conference on Harmonization) Harmonized Tripartite Guideline Q3C (R5). Wide synthetic utility and a detailed toxicity study suggest CPME as a green and sustainable solvent of choice for modern chemical transformations.