Naftalan oil
About
The Naftalan therapeutic oil field is located in the foothills of the Lesser Caucasus, far from the Goran railway station, southeast of the city of Ganja. It is the only oil field in the world with healing properties, and it has been known for a long time. Even Marco Polo talked about extracting oil from a well dug in Naftalan for use in the treatment of skin diseases. At the end of the 19th century, the German engineer A. I. Yeger drilled several wells on the land he leased in Naftalan and built a paid naphthalan treatment plant. It is known from history that during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, jars filled with naphthalene ointment were found in the first aid boxes of Japanese soldiers, which indicates that it has high healing properties.
It was determined that naphthalene oil has a good effect on the body and increases its general reactivity. Performing therapeutic procedures with the use of oil has an analgesic, anti-inflammatory and desensitization effect on the human body, improves trophic and metabolic processes in the body, restores the permeability of nerve fibers, reduces movement disorders, increases the threshold of pain sensation and i.a.
The Naftalan deposit belongs to Maykop deposits. Here, 7 oil-bearing horizons were discovered, only two of which contain healing oil. It is a solid mass with a juice-like consistency and is black-brown in color with olives, it has a unique aromatic smell, it is characterized by a large amount of naphthenic acids (0.8–3.0%) and high polycyclicity of naphthenic hydrocarbons. The oil contains sterols, which undergo changes during distillation. It is distinguished from other naphthenes by its "non-flammability".
At the moment, the world-class therapeutic health complex is operating in the bed; in treatment practice, the following naphthalene oil preparations are used: 1) native naphthalene (that is, obtained directly from drilling wells); 2) purified naphthalene (dehydrated naphthalene to which various thickeners are added to increase the viscosity of naphthalene); 3) resin-free naphthalene; 4) naphthenic hydrocarbons; 5) therapeutic naphthalene mastic containing naphthalene, paraffin, wax, ceresin, camphor.
Historical narrative
According to an ancient legend, a witch named Medea gave a strange ointment to Jason, the hero of the ancient Greek epic. This ointment protects him from fire and fire, and has given his body the property of not being a fire hazard. In ancient times, thousands of people from different parts of Asia, as well as from distant India, went to Azerbaijan to get rid of various diseases, they took naphthalene oil from here, and were treated with the help of this oil in their homeland. Camel caravans loaded with oil tanks were going from here to Eastern countries.
In 1887, a German engineer with the surname Yeger started producing "Naftalan" ointment in Germany. This ointment was exported to several countries of the world. During the Russo-Japanese war, Japanese soldiers had small containers with naphthalene ointment in their bags. There was a short but very encouraging inscription on those containers: "Whoever has this ointment, let him not be afraid of any wound".[1]
Chemical composition
Extensive research of the chemical composition of medicinal Naftalan oil has been conducted since the beginning of the 40s of the last century at the current Institute of Petrochemical Processes under the leadership of Academician Y. Mammadaliyev. Based on the obtained results, Y. Mammadaliyev put forward a hypothesis and published an article about the mechanism of action of Naftalan oil. Starting from the second half of the 60s of the last century, the research of Naphthalan oil was conducted in parallel at the Institute of Petrochemical Processes and the Institute of Chemical Additives, and articles were published in scientific journals and reports were heard at conferences. The research showed that the kerosene fraction of Naphthalan oil does not contain either normal or isoparaffins. . It was also determined that the kerosene fraction contains the following bicyclic aromatic fractions: