Naftalan oil

Naftalan oil has been used since antiquity and was noted by Marco Polo.{{Cite book|title=Travels of Marco Polo|publisher=Project Gutenberg|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10636/pg10636-images.html#Page_46 |pages=46 |quote=This oil is not good to use with food, but 'tis good to burn, and is also used to anoint camels that have the mange. People come from vast distances to fetch it, for in all the countries round about they have no other oil.}} Its chemistry has been studied from the 1870s.{{cite magazine |last1=Huseinov |first1=D. Y. |last2=Rustamov |first2=A. I. |url=https://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/34_folder/34_articles/34_naftalan.html |title=Naftalan: The Oil that Heals |magazine=Azerbaijan International |date=1995 |volume=3 |issue=4 |access-date=9 April 2024}} Treatment centres were established in Azerbaijan and were visited by people from the Soviet Union.{{cite magazine |last=Abbasov |first=Eldar |url=https://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/ai102_folder/102_articles/102_naftalan_abbasov.html |title=Naftalan - The Miracle Oil |magazine=Azerbaijan International |date=2002 |volume=10 |issue=2 |access-date=9 April 2024}} Its therapeutic effects have been studied since the 1890s.{{cite journal |last1=Karslı |first1=B. |last2=Kürüm |first2=B. |year=2024 |title=Comparison of the efficiency of epidermal growth factor, silver and Naftalan in the wound healing of rats |journal=Journal of Applied Biological Sciences |issn=2146-0108 |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=106–117 |url=https://www.jabsonline.org/index.php/jabs/article/view/1286 }}

After the oil boom at the turn of the 20th century, the Baku naftalan started to be extracted in higher volumes, and exported to Germany.{{sfn|Vržogić|Ostrogović|Alajbeg|2003|p=179}}{{Cite news |title=Azerbaijan: Painting With Oil – No, Not that Oil {{!}} Eurasianet |url=https://eurasianet.org/azerbaijan-painting-with-oil-no-not-that-oil |access-date=2022-04-25 |newspaper=Eurasianet |language=en}} After the borders were closed following the 1917 Russian Revolution, it fell into oblivion in the West. It still attracted some attention in the Soviet Union, when the Azerbaijan Medical University opened a small health resort that was in full operation by 1936.{{sfn|Vržogić|Ostrogović|Alajbeg|2003|p=179}}{{Cite journal |last=Casper |first=Samuel Arthur |title=The Bolshevik Afterlife: Posthumous Rehabilitation In The Post-Stalin Soviet Union, 1953-1970 |url=https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4510&context=edissertations |journal=Repository.upenn.edu}} In the 1930s, academician T. G. Pashayev started to try to isolate naphthalan from industrial paraffin and naphthenic oils and proposed the term, though more current research indicates that the term "earth mineral oil" is more appropriate for what he described in his paper published in Moscow in 1959.{{sfn|Vržogić|Ostrogović|Alajbeg|2003|p=178}}

During the 20th century, a large number of academic papers were published by Soviet researchers about the topic.{{sfn|Vržogić|Ostrogović|Alajbeg|2003|p=180}} Nevertheless, in Europe the results from the Naphthalan Health Resort in Azerbaijan were largely rejected because the idea of the application of native oil to human subjects was not acceptable.{{sfn|Vržogić|Ostrogović|Alajbeg|2003|p=181}}

In the 1970s, the School of Medicine, University of Zagreb conducted its own research to compare the kinds of oil found near Baku and near Križ, Croatia. After two years, in 1978, they concluded that the oil they analyzed was not carcinogenic, after testing at INA labs and at the Ruđer Bošković Institute, and conducting a trial with 770 patients.{{sfn|Vržogić|Ostrogović|Alajbeg|2003|p=180}} In 1989 the Naftalan Special Hospital for Medical Rehabilitation was founded in Ivanić Grad.{{sfn|Vržogić|Ostrogović|Alajbeg|2003|p=180}} Their use of naphtalan oil is restricted to a refined distillate, devoid of tar, aromatic content and other undesired substances, in an effort to minimize the rate of contraindications and side effects.{{sfn|Vržogić|Ostrogović|Alajbeg|2003|p=181}} This hospital later conducted a 10-year follow-up and observation of 10,000 of their patients and respective associated data, and reportedly observed a number of therapeutic effects.{{sfn|Vržogić|Ostrogović|Alajbeg|2003|p=182}}

As recently as 2006, the New York Times published an article referring to naftalan as mostly naphthalene, which would be carcinogenic to humans. In 2009, The Independent described one of the spas, repeating the claim about the composition of the oil.{{cite news |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/feeling-low-on-energy-have-a-bath-in-a-barrel-of-crude-oil-1741929.html |date=11 July 2009 |title=Feeling low on energy? Have a bath in a barrel of crude oil |first=Louis |last=Imbert }}

Naftalan oil is a type of heavy crude oil, a dense and viscous mixture with components including aromatics, naphthenes, asphaltenes and resins. In particular it contains naphthenic acids, an oil industry term for a group of carboxylic acids which can be up to 3 percent of the oil by weight.{{cite journal |doi=10.1134/S1070363219030459 |title=Composition and Properties of the Unique Oil from Azerbaijan's Naftalan Oilfield |date=2019 |last1=Adigozalova |first1=V. A. |last2=Hashimova |first2=U. F. |last3=Polyakova |first3=L. P. |journal=Russian Journal of General Chemistry |volume=89 |issue=3 |pages=631–640 }}{{cite journal |title = Acute and Subchronic Mammalian Toxicity of Naphthenic Acids from Oil Sands Tailings |author1=Richard H. McKee |author2=Colin M. North |author3=Paula Podhasky |author4=Jeffrey H. Charlap |author5=Adam Kuhl |journal = International Journal of Toxicology |volume = 33 |issue = 1 |pages = 347–355 |date = February 2014 |doi = 10.1177/1091581813504229 |url=http://toxsci.oxfordjournals.org/content/66/2/347.short |doi-access = free |pmid=24179025 }} Purified oil used in some treatments contains mainly polycyclic hydrocarbons, with the most pure having a transparent white to lemon-yellow color and napthenic content up to 98.5 percent.{{cite book |isbn=978-94-007-6152-0 |title=Black Sea Energy Resource Development and Hydrogen Energy Problems |editor-last1=Veziroğlu |editor-first1=Ayfer |editor-last2=Tsitskishvili |editor-first2=Marat |vauthors=Schur DV etal |chapter=Solubility of Fullerenes in Naftalan |date=20 April 2013 |publisher=Springer |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gM-5BQAAQBAJ&dq=Naftalan%20oil&pg=PA206 }}{{cite journal |doi=10.1134/S0965544123060282 |title=Comparative Analysis of High-Viscosity Oils from the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and the Naftalan Oil Field to Assess Their Balneological Potential |date=2023 |last1=Vtorushina |first1=E. A. |last2=Kulkov |first2=M. G. |last3=Salakhidinova |first3=G. T. |last4=Butyrin |first4=R. I. |last5=Aliev |first5=A. E. |last6=Nigametzyanov |first6=I. R. |last7=Vtorushin |first7=M. N. |last8=Yakovlev |first8=M. Yu. |last9=Kopytov |first9=A. G. |journal=Petroleum Chemistry |volume=63 |issue=9 |pages=1027–1038 |bibcode=2023PetrC..63.1027V }}

Early studies of the oil's chemistry and therapeutic properties involved partially purified material, a naptha used as an ointment which was compared favourably to Vaseline. It was applied to wounds and burns.{{cite journal |journal=The International Dental Journal |volume=20 |issue=1 |date=January 1899 |last=Rosenbaum |title=Naftalan |pages=27–29 |pmid=37912428 |pmc=10139374 }}

File:Qarabağ SPA and Resort 2013.jpg

Spas in Naftalan, Azerbaijan use the crude oil for whole-body bathing, a procedure which has been described by the British documentary photographer Chloe Dewe Mathews.{{cite book |isbn=978-1-59711-444-8 |title=Caspian: The Elements |last1=Montazami |first1=Morad |date=2018 |publisher=Peabody Museum Press }}{{cite web |url=https://www.chloedewemathews.com/caspian/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130311143937/https://www.chloedewemathews.com/caspian/ |archive-date=11 March 2013 |access-date=11 April 2024 |last=Dewe Mathews |first=Chloe |title=Caspian }} Click numbers lower left for slideshow. A typical single bathing session lasts ten minutes.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/oct/19/oil-chloe-dewe-mathews-caspian |title=Lives bathed in oil: how Chloe Dewe Mathews captured the Caspian coast |work=The Guardian |last=O'Hagan |first=Sean |date=19 October 2010 |access-date=10 April 2024 |quote=Here, a substance that is usually associated with power, wealth and global trade is used for healing and wellbeing. }} Health tourism is now a major industry in Azerbaijan.

The purified oil, which is a mixture of cycloalkanes, is used in combination with mineral waters for balneotherapy.{{rp|206}}

The concept of using heavy crude oil in spa treatments has led to a Canadian proposal to create a "bitumen spa" on the same principles as the Naftalan ones.{{cite news |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/bitumen-bubble-how-about-an-alberta-bitumen-spa-resort-1.3520352 |work=CBC News |date=5 April 2016 |last=Hampshire |first=Gareth |title='Bitumen bubble' ? How about an Alberta bitumen spa resort? |access-date=11 April 2024 }}

• Coal tar

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• {{cite journal | url = https://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=131453&lang=en | journal = Acta Dermatovenerologica Croatica | volume = 11 | issue = 3 | year = 2003 | publisher = Department of Dermatology and Venereology, University Hospital Centre Zagreb | access-date = 19 June 2021 | first1 = Pero | last1 = Vržogić | first2 = Želimir | last2 = Ostrogović | first3 = Anđa | last3 = Alajbeg | title = Naphthalan – A natural medicinal product| pages = 178–184 | pmid = 12967511 }}

• [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00687k1 BBC presenter] Iain Stewart takes a petroleum bath.
• [https://www.scmp.com/video/world/3005961/crude-oil-baths-controversial-cure-azerbaijan Video] from the South China Morning Post showing person taking a bath in Naftalan oil.
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqz_vG0hS8Q&pp=ygUTbmFmdGFsYW4gYXplcmJhaWphbg%3D%3D Youtube video] from DW News channel, part of Deutsche Welle.

Category:Petroleum

Category:Alternative medicine

Category:Naftalan, Azerbaijan

Category:Naphthalenes

Category:Cycloalkanes