Mineral oil
A mineral oil or paraffin oil is any of various colorless, odorless, light mixtures of higher alkanes from a mineral source, particularly a distillate of petroleum.
The name mineral oil by itself is imprecise, having been used for many specific oils over the past few centuries. Other names, similarly imprecise, include white oil, liquid paraffin, paraffinum liquidum (Latin), and liquid petroleum. Baby oil is a perfumed mineral oil.
Most often, mineral oil is a liquid by-product of refining crude oil to make gasoline and other petroleum products. This type of mineral oil is a transparent, colorless oil composed mainly of alkanes and cycloalkanes, related to petroleum jelly. It has a density of around 0.8 g/cm3.
Mineral oil is a substance of relatively low value, and it is produced in very large quantities. Mineral oil is available in light and heavy grades, and can often be found in drug stores.
Some of the imprecision in the definition of the names (e.g., "mineral oil", "white oil") reflects usage by buyers and sellers who did not know, and usually did not need to care about, the precise chemical makeup. Prior to the late 19th century, the chemical science to determine such makeup was unavailable in any case, so the fact that one name ended up applied to various oils is unsurprising. A similar lexical situation occurred with the term "white metal".
"Mineral oil", as sold widely and cheaply in the USA, is not sold as such in Britain. Instead British pharmacologists use the terms "Paraffinum perliquidum" for light mineral oil and "Paraffinum liquidum" or "Paraffinum subliquidum" for somewhat thicker (more viscous) varieties. The term "Paraffinum Liquidum" is often seen on the ingredient lists of baby oil and cosmetics. British aromatherapists commonly use the term "white mineral oil".
The World Health Organization classifies untreated or mildly treated mineral oils as Group 1 carcinogens to humans; highly refined oils are classified as Group 3, meaning they are not suspected to be carcinogenic but available information is not sufficient to classify them as harmless.
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