Castor oil bean cement (COB) is a new material that has been used as endodontic cement and might also be used as pulp capping agent. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the biocompatibility of a new formulation of COB compared to calcium hydroxide cement (CH) on rat subcutaneous tissue. Methods: For this study 42 male rats Wistar (Rattus Norvegicus albinus) were divided in three groups: A (n=14): CH (Dycal); B (n=14): COB (ricinus communis) and a control group (C) without any material (n=14). The materials were prepared and conditioned inside of polyethylene tubes (Johnson & Johnson) (10mm of length and 1.5mm of diameter). After initial setting of materials, the tubes were implanted into the dorsal subcutaneous tissue of rats. The animals were sacrificed on the 7th and 50th day after implantation, and samples of skin containing the tubes were histologically processed. The tissue reactions were examined by light microscopy. Quantitative analysis of inflammatory cells was performed on standard area. Data were submitted to ANOVA and Tukey's tests (p<0.05). Results: Comparing the mean of inflammatory cells among the two experimental groups (A and B) and the control group, there was observed significant difference (p=0.000). There were no significant differences between tissue reaction to CH (382 inflammatory cells) and COB (330) after seven days (p=0.111). However, after fifty days, there was a higher mean of inflammatory cells to CH (404) than to COB (177) with p=0.02. Conclusions: These results suggest that COB induces less inflammatory response in long periods of observation, therefore may be more biocompatible for pulp capping and pulpotomy procedures.

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