Lorenzo's Oil

Lorenzo's Oil

Lorenzo’s oil is 4 parts of glyceryl trioleate and 1 part glyceryl erucate (the triacylglycerol forms of oleic acid and erucic acid), prepared from olive oil and rapeseed oil. It is used in the investigational treatment of asymptomatic patients with adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD). The oil was formulated by Augusto and Michaela Odone after their son Lorenzo was diagnosed with the disease in 1984, at the age of five. Augusto received U.S. Patent No. 5,331,009 for the oil. The royalties he received were paid to the Myelin Project which he and Michaela founded to further research treatments for ALD and similar disorders. The Odones and their invention obtained widespread publicity in 1992 because of the film Lorenzo’s Oil.

Lorenzo Odone died on May 30, 2008, at the age of 30, after suffering from aspiration pneumonia, caused by food getting stuck in his lungs.