Freund's Adjuvants

Freund’s adjuvants are water-in-mineral oil emulsions (W/O emulsions) without heat-killed mycobacteria added (Freund’s incomplete adjuvant) or with heat-killed mycobacteria added (Freund’s complete adjuvant). Freund’s adjuvants are, in a way, historic adjuvants and for many researchers the first and most obvious association to the word adjuvant at all. The adjuvants have been used extensively in experimental immunology owing to their high efficacy, and Freund’s incomplete adjuvant has been used for decades in practical veterinary vaccination. Vaccination of humans with Freund’s incomplete adjuvant was undertaken in the 1950s and was stopped because of adverse reactions in the mid-1960s.