Dippel's oil
Byproduct of bone destructive distillation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dippel's oil (sometimes referred to as bone oil) is a nitrogenous by-product of the destructive distillation of bones[1] and other parts of animal carcasses.
The oil is named after its inventor, Johann Konrad Dippel. It is derived by multiple distillations from raw animal oil ("oleum animale foetidum crudum"), a dark, viscous, tar-like liquid with an unpleasant smell, consisting of aliphatic chains, with nitrogen functional groups including pyrroles, pyridines and nitriles, as well as other nitrogenous compounds.[1]
Oleum animale foetidum crudum had a number of uses, which are mostly obsolete. Its primary use was as an animal and insect repellent. It saw limited use as a chemical warfare harassing agent during the desert campaign of World War II. The oil was used to render wells undrinkable and thus deny their use to the enemy.[2][3] By not being lethal, the oil was claimed to not be in breach of the Geneva Protocol.
See also
- Neatsfoot oil, another bone-derived oil
- Bone char, what remains after the distillation of the bones
