Petroleum Jelly (White Petrolatum)

White petrolatum USP/BP/Ph. Eur., yellow and technical petroleum jelly in drums

Yes: Vaseline is a brand name for petroleum jelly, not a different substance. The brand has belonged to Unilever since 1987, and in many languages its name is used for petroleum jelly in general. What Vaseline and every other petroleum jelly are made of is petrolatum (CAS 8009-03-8), a semi-solid mixture of hydrocarbons, mostly with more than 25 carbon atoms, in which microcrystalline wax holds 25 to 40 per cent of liquid mineral oil. It is made in oil refineries from the heavy lubricating-oil fractions of vacuum distillation: dewaxing those fractions leaves a waxy, oily residue, and that residue is purified and decolourised until it is white, odourless and within the aromatic limits a pharmacopoeia sets. Robert Chesebrough patented the first process in 1872, distilling the crude material and filtering the residue through bone char. Grades follow the degree of refining. White petrolatum, sold to the USP, BP or Ph. Eur. monograph and called white soft paraffin in the British and European texts, is the pharmaceutical and cosmetic grade. Yellow petrolatum is less decolourised. Technical petrolatum is not for skin or food contact and goes into rubber, rust preventives, putty, leather finishing and printing inks.

A buyer specifies petroleum jelly on a short list of numbers. The USP monograph for white petrolatum sets a melting range of 38 to 60 °C, consistency of 100 to 300 (cone penetration in tenths of a millimetre), specific gravity of 0.815 to 0.880 at 60 °C and residue on ignition of not more than 0.05 per cent, with a colour limit and tests for acidity, alkalinity and fixed oils. The JECFA food specification adds sulphur at 0.2 per cent maximum and ultraviolet absorbance limits that cap polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Technical grade is looser: one producer's sheet gives a drop melting point of 45 to 60 °C, cone penetration of 130 to 230 and sulphated ash of 0.1 per cent maximum, packed in drums of 170 kg net. Petroleum jelly is declared under HS 2712.10. The 2024 export declarations total about 168,000 tonnes, led by India at about 60,000 tonnes, Germany at 34,000 and the United States at 26,000, at declared values of roughly USD 1,700, 2,050 and 2,500 per tonne; those are customs values, not offers. CBIL brokers petroleum jelly between a named refinery or blender and a named buyer, against the producer's certificate of analysis and grade certificate and SGS or Intertek inspection at loading, in steel drums by the 20 ft container on FOB, CFR and CIF terms. Send the grade, the pharmacopoeia, the melting point and penetration window, the colour and the volume.

See also: Microcrystalline wax and petrolatum: the wax behind the jelly · Fully refined paraffin wax

Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.