Mineral oil |supplier Distributor Manufacturer in chennai Taminadu india

Mineral 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, paraffin oil, liquid paraffin (a highly refined medical grade), 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/cm.

Applications

Biomedicine
Laxative
Mineral oil is used as a laxative to alleviate constipation by retaining water in stool and the intestines[9]. Although generally considered safe, as noted above, there is a concern of mist inhalation leading to serious health conditions such as pneumonia [10].

Cell culture
Mineral oil of special purity is often used as an overlay covering microdrops of culture medium in petri dishes, during the culture of oocytes and embryos in IVF and related procedures. The use of oil presents several advantages over the open culture system: it allows for several oocytes and embryos to be cultured simultaneously, but observed separately, in the same dish; it minimizes concentration and pH changes by preventing evaporation of the medium; it allows for a significant reduction of the medium volume used (as few as 20 microlitres per oocyte instead of several millilitres for the batch culture); and it serves as a temperature buffer minimizing thermal shock to the cells while the dish is taken out of the incubator for observation.

Veterinary

Over the counter veterinarian use mineral oil is intended as a mild laxative for pets and livestock. Certain mineral oils are used in livestock vaccines, as an adjuvant to stimulate a cell-mediated immune response to the vaccinating agent. In the poultry industry, plain mineral oil can also be swabbed onto the feet of chickens infected with scaly mites on the shank, toes, and webs. Mineral oil suffocates these tiny parasites[citation needed]. In beekeeping, food grade mineral oil-saturated paper napkins placed in hives are used as a treatment for tracheal and other mites. It is also used along with a cotton swab to remove un-shed skin (ashes) on reptiles such as lizards and snakes.
other uses

Mineral oil's ubiquity has led to its use in some niche applications as well. It is used for treating and preserving wooden butcher block counter tops. It is recommended by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine for use as a fertility-preserving vaginal lubrication. The degrading effect of oils on latex condoms should be borne in mind.

Mineral oil is commonly used to create a "wear" effect on new clay poker chips, which can otherwise be accomplished only through prolonged use. Either the chips are placed in mineral oil (and left there for a short period of time) or the oil is applied to each chip individually, then the chip is rubbed clean. This removes any chalky residue left over from manufacture, and also improves the look and "feel" of the chips.

It is used as the principal fuel in some types of gel-type scented candles.

It is used for cooling, for example liquid submersion cooling of components in some custom-built computers. Veterinarian-grade mineral oil is an inexpensive source for mineral oil and is frequently used by amateur radio operators as coolant in RF dummy loads. Mineral oil is typically used as the insulating and cooling fluid in large electrical equipment such as transformers.

Mineral oil is used as a brake fluid in some cars and bicycle disc brakes.

It is used for polishing alabaster in stonework and lubricating and cleaning pocket knives or food handling tools that use an open bearing, thus needing periodic lubrication. Light mineral oil (paraffinum perliquidum) is used as a honing oil when sharpening edge tools (such as chisels) on abrasive oil stones. Mineral oil USP or light mineral oil can be used as an anti-rust agent for blades.

It is an inexpensive alternative for storing reactive metals (lithium, sodium, etc.).

Horticultural oil is often made of a combination of mineral oil and detergent. It is sprayed on plants to control scale, aphid, and other pest populations by suffocation.

It is used to overlay polymerase chain reactions in biotechnology to prevent loss of water during heating cycles. It is often used to suspend crystals for use in X-ray crystallography.

It is used as a transparent collision material for reactions in particle physics, as in the MiniBooNE neutrino oscillation experiment.