Naftalan orNaphtalan is a type ofcrude oil. It is named afterNaftalan, Azerbaijan, where it is found. It is known for its use inalternative medicine.
Naftalan crude oil is tooheavy for normal export uses (unlike Azerbaijan's plentifulCaspian Sea oil): it contains about 50 percentcycloalkanes (naphthenic hydrocarbons).[1]
In Azerbaijan, people using the oil generally sit in a bath and are covered in oil up to their necks. There are numerous petroleumspas in the city of Naftalan itself.[2][3] As a result, it has become a destination forhealth tourism.[4]
Naftalan oil has been used since antiquity and was noted byMarco Polo.[5] Its chemistry has been studied from the 1870s.[6] Treatment centres were established inAzerbaijan and were visited by people from theSoviet Union.[7] Its therapeutic effects have been studied since the 1890s.[8]
After the oil boom at the turn of the 20th century, theBaku naftalan started to be extracted in higher volumes, and exported to Germany.[9][10] After the borders were closed following the1917 Russian Revolution, it fell into oblivion in theWest. It still attracted some attention in the Soviet Union, when theAzerbaijan Medical University opened a small health resort that was in full operation by 1936.[7][9][11] In the 1930s, academician T. G. Pashayev started to try to isolate naphthalan fromindustrial paraffin andnaphthenic 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.[12]
During the 20th century, a large number of academic papers were published by Soviet researchers about the topic.[13] 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.[14]
In the 1970s, theSchool of Medicine, University of Zagreb conducted its own research to compare the kinds of oil found near Baku and nearKriž,Croatia. After two years, in 1978, they concluded that the oil they analyzed was not carcinogenic, after testing atINA labs and at theRuđer Bošković Institute, and conducting a trial with 770 patients.[13] In 1989 theNaftalan Special Hospital for Medical Rehabilitation was founded inIvanić Grad.[13] 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.[14] 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.[15]
As recently as 2006, theNew York Times published an article referring to naftalan as mostlynaphthalene, which would be carcinogenic to humans.[2] In 2009,The Independent described one of the spas, repeating the claim about the composition of the oil.[16]
Naftalan oil is a type ofheavy crude oil, a dense and viscous mixture with components includingaromatics,naphthenes,asphaltenes andresins.[1] In particular it containsnaphthenic acids, an oil industry term for a group ofcarboxylic acids which can be up to 3 percent of the oil by weight.[17][18] Purified oil used in some treatments contains mainly polycyclic hydrocarbons, with the most pure having a transparent white to lemon-yellow color and naphthenic content up to 98.5 percent.[19][20]
Early studies of the oil's chemistry and therapeutic properties involved partially purified material, anaptha used as an ointment which was compared favourably toVaseline. It was applied to wounds and burns.[21]
Spas inNaftalan, Azerbaijan use the crude oil for whole-body bathing,[3][7] a procedure which has been described by the British documentary photographerChloe Dewe Mathews.[22][23] A typical single bathing session lasts ten minutes.[24]Health tourism is now a major industry in Azerbaijan.[4]
The purified oil, which is a mixture ofcycloalkanes, is used in combination withmineral waters forbalneotherapy.[19]: 206 [20]
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.[25]
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.
Here, a substance that is usually associated with power, wealth and global trade is used for healing and wellbeing.
