Skip to Main Navigation
Skip to Page Content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Nomination Summary for 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural (HMF) (N95002)

Nominated Substances: 5-(Hydroxymethyl)-2-furfural

Nomination Date: 11/09/1994

Nominator: NIEHS

Rationale: 5-(Hydroxymethyl)furfural (HMF) is a thermal decomposition product of sucrose, and has been identified in a wide variety of heat processed foods. HMF has mutagenic and DNA strand breaking activity. HMF promotes the growth of the aberrant crypt foci in the colon of rats initiated with azoxymethane, and also induced the development of these colon cancer precursor lesions in rats. No long term studies have been reported on HMF. HMFs mutagenicity in Salmonella is markedly enhanced by esterification of the allylic hydroxyl group to the sulfuric acid ester (5-Sulfooxy-methyfurfural).

NTP Principles: 1, 2

Agents and Status

The following information relates to the specific agent and may include history from earlier or later nominations for this same agent.

Back to Top

CASRN: 67-47-0

Agent Name: 5-(Hydroxymethyl)-2-furfural