Ethyl oleate is used by compounding pharmacies as a vehicle for intramuscular drug delivery, in some cases to prepare the daily doses of progesterone in support of pregnancy. Studies that document the safe use of ethyl oleate in pregnancy for both the mother and the fetus have never been performed. It is regulated as a food additive in the U.S. by the Food and Drug Administration.[2] Ethyl oleate is used as a solvent for pharmaceutical drug preparations involving lipophilic substances such as steroids.[3] It also finds use as a lubricant and a plasticizer. Louis Bouveault used ethyl oleate to demonstrate Bouveault–Blanc reduction, producing oleyl alcohol and ethanol,[4] a method which was subsequently refined and published in Organic Syntheses.[5]
Ethyl oleate is produced by the body during ethanol intoxication.[8] It is one of the fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE) produced after ingestion of ethanol. Some research literature implicates FAEEs such as ethyl oleate as the toxic mediators of ethanol in the body (pancreas, liver, heart, and brain).[9][10] Ethyl oleate may be the toxic mediator of alcohol in fetal alcohol syndrome.[9] The oral ingestion of ethyl oleate has been carefully studied and due to rapid degradation in the digestive tract it appears safe for oral ingestion.[11]
^Marinescu, Smaranda C.; Schrock, Richard R.; Müller, Peter; Hoveyda, Amir H. (2009). "Ethenolysis Reactions Catalyzed by Imido Alkylidene Monoaryloxide Monopyrrolide (MAP) Complexes of Molybdenum". J. Am. Chem. Soc. 131 (31): 10840–10841. doi:10.1021/ja904786y. PMID19618951.
^Dan L, Laposata M (1997). "Ethyl palmitate and ethyl oleate are the predominant fatty acid ethyl esters in the blood after ethanol ingestion and their synthesis is differentially influenced by the extracellular concentrations of their corresponding fatty acids". Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. 21 (2): 286–92. doi:10.1111/j.1530-0277.1997.tb03762.x. PMID9113265.