Here is more information about Ballistol, to further support its use as a health aid.
Ballistol was originally used as a digestive aid used by hunters, and as a battlefield wound oil for German soldiers during both World Wars (see below for more details). I guess there were other human health uses for it back in the day (and even now); it’s just what I noticed in my cursory review of this long known elixir and historically important military machinery oil. Its inventor, chemistry professor, Dr. Helmut Klever invented it in 1904; and it was subsequently used by the German Army between 1905 - 1945. It served the soldiers as a wound oil for minor injuries, lacerations and bruises.
I was curious about its chemical composition, and paid attention when I read that it contained a high quality, environmentally safe white mineral oil, which based on its description, is an ideal carrier for other medicinal ingredients. I read that the oil was alkaline (presumably meaning only that it has a pH > 7). It contains a couple of salts of another of its ingredients, oleic acid, a fatty acid. Its carboxylate (RCOO-) would be slightly basic (alkaline); one of its cations is K+, which is neutral. The other cation is ammonium ion, NH4+(there were two salts of oleic acid), which is weakly acidic. The alkaline pH observed in aqueous solutions of Ballistol is probably due to the net effect of the carboxylate itself and its reaction between the oleic carboxylate (weakly basic) and its gegen ion, NH4+ (weakly acidic), to release small equilibrium amounts of NH3, another weak base.
Other ingredients of Ballistol are benzyl alcohol, amyl alcohol, isobutyl alcohol, benzyl acetate, and anethole (a derivative of anisole). What accounts for Ballistol’s water solubility? Although it is 85% mineral oil, water insoluble), the presence of the above alcohols along with its combination of terpenols (5-carbon alcohols) undoubtedly give Ballistol its water solubility. These low molecular weight alcohols are polar molecules that can hydrogen bond with water well enough to render Ballistol soluble in water, at least partially soluble. Helmut Klever seems to have cleverly thrown together a variety of organics that happened to be in the chemical plant founded by his father, Friedrich Wilhelm Klever! He also mixed in small quantities of terpene essential oils (water insoluble hydrocarbons) for fragrance. What a chemiker!
What follows is what I
could find from an online search about Ballistol.
The formulation was developed by Helmut Klever (the son of Friedrich Wilhelm Klever, see below), who at the time was a university chemistry professor.
The oil was developed in the early 20 th century under the necessity for the German military to have a universal oil that could not only be used on metal, but also on wood and leather.
BALLISTOL has been the first quality oil for maintenance and body care, the environment friendly oil since it was invented back in 1904.
In 1874 Friedrich Wilhelm Klever, a lawyer interested in the field of economy, founded the F.W. Klever Chemical Plant in Cologne, Germany. He began producing oils and grease on the basis of coal. To be independent of the delivery of raw materials, he bought a coal mine. Around the turn of the 20th century the imperial army was in need of a universal oil, which was not only suitable for maintaining the metal parts of guns but also for the upkeep and preservation of wooden stocks and leather gear. Simultaneously, it had to serve the soldiers as a wound oil for minor injuries, lacerations and bruises. It was Dr. Helmut Klever, then lecturer for chemistry at the Technical University of Karlsruhe and the son of the founder of the Chemical Plant, who succeeded in finding the formula for a special oil (alkaline). He coined the name BALLISTOL by combining the technical term ballistics and the Latin word for oil oleum.
Only after a short while BALLISTOL managed to establish itself as a ”wonder oil“ due to its incredible, often miraculous abilities. It was used by the German Army from 1905 to 1945. The brand name BALLISTOL survived all the historical turbulences of our century and became a standing expression, a technical term, for hunters, shooters, anglers and many more. It is not exaggerated to claim that BALLISTOL has become a synonym for quality and versatility.
BALLISTOL is based on medicinally pure white oil. This kind of oil is used in the field of pharmacy as a component of medicaments that are taken by human beings. To man and animal as well as lower organisms it is absolutely nontoxic. As we also know today it does not contaminate water. When some oil gets into the soil it is decomposed by microorganisms and integrated into natural circulation. The active ingredients contained in BALLISTOL are to be found combined or uncombined with other elements in nature. Therefore they are decomposed in the course of natural circulation like all substances and compounds that have come into existence naturally. Consequently, they bear no ecological risks. Neither is there any kind of chlorinated hydrocarbon in BALLISTOL, nor are there any other components in it, which would be detrimental to our environment such as PCB’s or dioxins.
BALLISTOL belongs to the group of alkaline oils, which, due to their chemical structure, do not tend to resinify anyway. If you spray BALLISTOL for example on a metal surface or on complicated fine-mechanical parts, then the natural solvents contained in BALLISTOL will vaporize in the course of time. What remains is a white, vaseline-like coat, which is both protection against corrosion and lubricant for moveable parts.
Ballistol is 85% mineral oil with the rest of its composition being a couple of alcohols for degreasing plus a chemical for breaking down carbon and copper.
Compare with this MSDS (material safety data sheet)
https://www.weaverleathersupply.com/docs/default-source/sds/Ballistol-50-6045.pdf?sfvrsn=2
According to a specification from December 2002:
· pharmaceutical white oil: CAS RN 8042-47-5
· Oleic acid: CAS RN 112-80-1
· C-5 alcohols: CAS RN 78-83-1; CAS RN 137-32-6; CAS RN 100-51-6
· different essential oils to perfume Ballistol
According to 2013 MSDS:
· Mineral Oil (liquid paraffin)
· Potassium Oleate
· Ammonium Oleate
· Benzyl Alcohol
· Amyl Alcohol
· Isobutyl Alcohol
· Benzyl Acetate
· Anethole
· Isohexane (aerosol only)
See below for my analysis (speculation) for how Ballistol works.
The following attempts to explain at least one aspect of Dr. Klever’s formulation that would give more than just a combination of organic molecules.
One more thought regarding the Ballistol wound elixir: Because Professor Helmut Klever selected oleic acid salts (potassium and ammonium ions) as one of its components (oleic acid being a pretty common excipient in those days), I believe he fortuitously created the perfect formulation that would spontaneously form micelles that would allow its other components and those with which it came into contact, to act as channels for their effective transport. For example, the micelles could form a hydrophobic skin-like surface that would merge with a wound’s outer surface; that would protect the fresh wound from oxidizing effects of the air as well as its previously intact skin had done. The inner volume of the micelle would be hydrophilic, and probably hydrated with enough water to dissolve various biologically useful cations, such as potassium and sodium ions, and even valuable trace minerals. This is how the micelle would form in a hydrophobic or lipid-like environment, and might be labeled a “reverse micelle.” And closer to the interior of the wound, nearer to open arteries and veins, the micelle would have a structure suitable for a hydrophilic environment, with the outer surface being hydrophilic and the inner volume being hydrophobic. The outer surface of the micelle would be useful in allowing water soluble nutrients and oxygen into and out of the blood supply.
By the way, the above micellar structure is very similar to the molecular structures of our common soaps and other surfactants. A soap or detergent molecule has a long hydrocarbon tail (hydrophobic) and a very polar head (COO-), the polar head pointing outward toward the watery environment, the hydrophobic tail hiding inside the interior of the sphere. This entity “cleans” by having attracted hydrophobic dirt or germs to the collective hydrophobic tails and containing it; the hydrophilic exterior of the micellar sphere, being strongly attracted to the abundant water molecules, allows the whole enlarged micelle to be washed down the drain.