Pharmacy
Themes
Petroleum Proving
Pharmacy
Hahnemann’Äôs description of the substance he used indicates that it was not a refined substance but simply crude petroleum taken from the ground: ’ÄúThis product of the interior of the earth is extremely strong in smell, taste and medicinal effect. For medicinal use it ought to be very fluid and of light - yellow colour. If it is very fluid it is not very likely that it has been adulterated with fat vegetable oils.’Äù
In Hahnemann’Äôs day, oil distillation had not been developed, the first instance of it being in 1853, 10 years after his death, and fractional distillation had not been developed as a laboratory or commercial tool until 1864. In 1853 the first actual distillation of crude petroleum into kerosene (paraffin oil) was performed and the first modern ’Äúrock oil’Äù mine was created in southern Poland in the following year. While Hahnemann was alive, therefore, the practice of refining crude ’Äúrock oil’Äù had not been developed and what he worked with would have been the liquid portion of the unrefined substance. From his description as above, this would have been a mixture of some of the lighter liquid elements of the hydrocarbon mix that make up petroleum.
T. F. Allen’Äôs Encyclopedia (1878 edition) states that oil from Rangoon, Burma should be used and the American Pharmacopoeia of 1883 states that Hahnemann used a crude oil from Rangoon. It isn’Äôt clear from Hahnemann’Äôs own description in Chronic Diseases that this was his source for ’Äúpetroleum’Äù but would likely have been one of the commercially available medicinal products being sold at the time.
’ÄòAccidental’Äô oil fields in America were becoming commercially exploited for supposed medicinal qualities of the rock oil. These bottled wonders were being sold throughout America and Europe from the 1830’Äôs and it was possibly that this is what Hahnemann used, as even the commercial development of oil from Burma only began after his death. Because of the lack of knowledge of the source and the huge variation in the composition of oil extracted from different locations, as well as the tendency of the lighter elements of the petroleum mix to evaporate and the lack of control and standardisation in the collection methods, what Hahnemann’Äôs Petroleum was could not even be broadly guessed at with any accuracy.
Hahnemann’Äôs expressed concern was whether the product was exclusively rock oil or had been adulterated with vegetable oils, chiefly suspecting oil of turpentine. He proposed tests, one using sulphuric acid and a simpler one of evaporation on writing paper, to determine if such oils were present. He then advised a means of removing any such oils, if found, using alcohol and filtration. (Chronic Diseases)
So we are forced to accept that Hahnemann’Äôs Petroleum is from the liquid portion of crude petroleum of unknown composition and from an undefined source.
At some point later in the development of homoeopathic literature, we find homeopathic Petroleum identified with kerosene (paraffin oil). For instance Clarke’Äôs Materia Medica (1900) states: ’ÄúCommercial ’ÄòPetroleum’Äô and commercial ’Äòparaffin oil’Äô are one and the same. The Petrol. of homoeopathy is this substance purified and rectified.’Äù
The most recent Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States monograph for Petroleum (1992) states explicitly that the product is Kerosene but then incorrectly gives alternative names: Rock Oil, Oleum Petrae, Oleum terrae ’Äì which should be reserved for the crude material. It also includes the correct name: coal oil (as kerosene can be extracted from coal), but to this should be added for clarity: paraffin, paraffin oil, lamp oil, mineral oil.
The adoption of kerosene/paraffin oil as a more defined homoeopathic ’ÄúPetroleum’Äù has its justification in that it closely matches Hahnemann’Äôs description and that, as a specified fractional distillate of crude oil, it can now be standardised ’Äì which is essential to the reliance on a remedy that is being prescribed in accordance to a proving. According to the 26th edition of the Martindale Extra Pharmacopoeia, kerosene is ’Äúa mixture of hydrocarbons, chiefly of the methane series, distilled from petroleum. It is a colourless or pale yellow mobile oily liquid with a characteristic odour. B.P. 150 to 300. Wt. per ml about 0.8g . . . Insoluble in water; soluble 1 in 2.5 of alcohol.’Äù
Helios prepared its Petroleum from the HPUS monograph, using a high grade of kerosene/paraffin oil. Ours was an ’Äúultrapure’Äù grade obtained from a candle and lamp specialist. Although Hahnemann’Äôs concern about adulteration with vegetable oils was not a concern for us, we did perform his test of dropping it onto clean writing paper. It left no residue. We also tested for specific gravity, which was 0.8 as indicated by homoeopathic and other pharmacopoeias. The 1X was prepared by diluting in absolute ethanol; higher potencies in 90%.
Petroleum Components
Broadly speaking, petroleum consists of hydrocarbons: chain molecules of carbon with hydrogen attached; and non-hydrocarbon fractions: compounds which might also include nitrogen, sulfur, oxygen, or traces of metals such as vanadium or nickel.
The shorter carbon chains are the lighter elements, the shortest comprising gas components; longer chains make up the heavier compounds, progressing from lighter volatile liquids to denser oily components and greases; and finally the longest chain molecules make up the solids.
The four lightest alkanes ’Äî CH4 (methane), C2H6 (ethane), C3H8 (propane) and C4H10 (butane) ’Äî are all gases and will have separated from the crude oil mix through vaporisation.
The chains in the C5-C7 range are all light, easily vaporized, clear naphthas. They are used as solvents, dry cleaning fluids, and other quick-drying products. The chains from C6H14 through C12H26 are blended together and used for gasoline. Kerosene/paraffin oil is made up of chains in the C10 to C15 range, followed by diesel fuel/heating oil (C10 to C20) and heavier fuel oils as the ones used in ship engines. These petroleum compounds are all liquid at room temperature.
Lubricating oils and semi-solid greases (including Vaseline®) range from C16 up to C20.
Chains above C20 form solids, starting with paraffin wax, then tar and asphaltic bitumen.
The exact proportion of components in a sample of paraffin oil is not fixed but depends on the make-up the original crude oil and this varies from source to source.