THE FIFTH ELEMENT...

We have a lot to be proud of. Azerbaijan is a rich country with unique natural resources. However, sometimes we are accused of having no scientific and technological development and rational approach. Often, in order to develop, for example, a formula for using our own wealth, we prefer to invite a foreign specialist, acting on the principle "the West will help us". Yes, foreign experts have the most up-to-date equipment and advanced research facilities, but they have no knowledge of the specifics and peculiarities of the subject. We forget that our country has many scientists who research what Azerbaijan's fertile land has bestowed on us. Among other resources, the Creator has given us the world's only medical naphthalan oil, which can be considered one of the wonders of Azerbaijan, as well as scientists who have devoted many years of their lives to its study and development for the benefit of the country.

One such scientist is our interviewee and director of the pharmaceutical company BIOOIL, Hasan Kazimov, who is the author of six modern naphthalan drugs: naphthalan oil, naphthalan ointment, naphthalan nanocapsules, naphthalan bath balm, naphthalan gel against burns, naphthalan gel for gums and many hygienic and cosmetic products such as shampoo and hair gel, shower gel, toothpaste, Parodonaftalan rinser, etc. All these are made by BIOOIL based on a revolutionary scientific discovery by the Azerbaijani scientist - the nanocapsule of naphthalan oil. What is it? Speaking in plain language, the nanocapsule of naphthalan oil is a miracle. But from a scientific point of view, it is a macromolecule that forms a sphere inside which naphthenic hydrocarbons are contained. Hasan Kazimov himself is humble enough to call the result of his work a miracle of scientific thought. Speaking about the business of his life, he mentions the names of people who have devoted their careers to naphthalan. And, of course, he regards his nanocapsule as the fruit of collective work by various scientists of different times.

- How did you and Azerbaijani science discover the nanocapsule of naphthalan oil?

- First, I want to talk a little bit about what naphthalan oil is and what path it has travelled to become a nanocapsule. The first written mention of the medicinal oil - so-called "mountain oil" - and its export by camel caravans from the Naftalan field is found in poems by the great Azerbaijani poet and thinker Nizami. The second description of naphthalan was given by the famous 13th century Italian traveller, Marco Polo. Naftalan, as one of the oldest deposits, has been known for many hundreds of years. Legend has it that it was visited for treatment not only by local residents but also by Persians and even Indians, and that naphthalan has been exported to Asia Minor, the Crimea and distant India since time immemorial. And today, returning home, people take a bottle of naphthalan. These are traditions of folk hospitals which come from the depths of centuries. The fundamental study of its physical, chemical and geological factors began after the establishment of Soviet rule in Azerbaijan, and it gave a good estimate of naphthalan oil in terms of its medicinal properties. During the Soviet era, there was a nathphalan resort established in 1928, and in 1929 the official ambulatory reception of patients began to treat them according to the popular method - naphthalan and sunbathing, wrapping in bed with sweating, etc. Every year, the sanatorium was visited by more than 100,000 holidaymakers from all over the Soviet Union and from abroad. Many of them left their crutches here, without which they could not move before naphthalan treatment. There were so many of them that the sanatorium set up a museum of crutches, which, unfortunately, did not survive. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Nagornyy Karabakh war not only significantly delayed the process of restoring the naphthalan business, but almost paralyzed the operation of the Naftalan resort and contacts with other scientific institutions. Since 1992, the resort and the health centre have been visited only by 3,000 to 6,000 people.

What do we have today? Although naphthalan oil is unique for its healing properties, its consumption in a bath of oil caused a lot of inconvenience. First, it was impossible to clean it after use, and one naphthalan bath could be visited by more than 10 patients, which was certainly unhygienic. Second, it was difficult to wash it off the body and the patients spent hours in the shower to completely remove it from their bodies. Third, the unpleasant smell of naphthalan could last a long time after the treatment and dirtied the clothes, evaporating through the pores for a long time.

At different times and in different aspects, researchers listed the main problems of naphthtalan treatment from the first days of its use in official medicine. For example, one of the prominent founders of the use of naphthalan in medicine in the 1940s, K. Yegorov, believed that the main problems of naphthalan was the fact that it was absorbed by the skin - haemolysis (destruction of red blood cells with the release of haemoglobin into the environment) under the influence of naphthalan, as well as its direct effect and toxicity. Another researcher of physical and chemical properties of naphthalan, an internationally renowned scientist, founder of petrochemical science in Azerbaijan, Academician Yusif Mammadaliyev, found that the therapeutic effects of naphthalan are polycyclic naphthenic hydrocarbons. Consistently purifying naphthalene from resins, asphaltenes, naphthenic acids and aromatic hydrocarbons, which have a toxic effect on human skin, Mammadaliyev found that after each cleaning procedure, the therapeutic properties of naphthalan increased, while side effects, including toxic effect, decreased. So, the scientist suggested that the active substances in naphthalan are naphthenic hydrocarbons, not sterols, as other researchers believed. Later this theory was developed by Academician A. Quliyev, Academician Farzaliyev together with the staff of the Research Institute of Chemistry of Additives at the National Academy of Sciences and Academician M. Rustamov together with the staff of the Research Institute of Petrochemical Processes at the National Academy of Sciences. They all achieved certain results in clearing naphthalan from unnecessary impurities and, thus, attained efficiency and aesthetics in the further application of naphthalan in medicine and cosmetology.

- And all this was the starting point for creating the nanocapsule?

- We can say so. But it took many years, and the chronology of cleaning naphthalan oil can be divided into 5 stages: in 1890, native (natural) black and brown naphthalan was used for treatment. It was used by the German mining engineer E. Jaeger, who, in fact, built the first cemented "bath house" in the history of naphthalan treatment. In Azerbaijan, he was looking for oil, but it turned out that naphthalan oil did not burn. This prompted him to start extracting it from shallow depths. And he charged money for swimming in such oil. Then, in 1920-1930s, scientists dehydrated and desalted naphthalan in the process of its purification. So in 1930, the refined dark green naphthalan was produced. In 1960, scientists developed deresined dark orange or yellow naphthalan. In 2003, our company obtained a licence to manufacture the unique medical substance naphthalan oil registered by the Ministry of Health of Azerbaijan. Imagine that this same naphthalan oil, purified from impurities, is a completely white non-aromatic fluid. After all, aromatic hydrocarbons are toxic to humans. As a result of the phased clearance, naphthalan was converted into naphthalan oil - the result of the realization of the long-cherished dream of many prominent founders and professionals of the naphthalan business. Getting this product opened a more rational opportunity for the preparation and subsequent use of certain medicinal naphthalan products also as cosmetic, veterinary and sanitary drugs. However, I and a number of other scientists went even further and, thanks to nanotechnology, developed a nanocapsule of naphthalan oil, i.e. placed it in microcapsules. The result of this work was a completely new product that is unparalleled in the world - a nanocapsule of naphthenic hydrocarbons. The use of advanced technology allowed us to change the physical and chemical properties of naphthalan, giving us the opportunity to mix it with other ingredients, making naphthalan oil more efficient. It made it possible to develop a series of medical cosmetic and medical products for problem skin suffering from terrible and almost incurable diseases - psoriasis, neurodermatitis, eczema, dermatitis of various aetiology and other systemic diseases, improved treatment efficacy and reduced side effects. I should also say that naphthenic hydrocarbons slow down the process of cell division, help treat and prevent the most common problems of inflamed skin and systemic diseases due to the rapid absorption of nanocapsules by skin pores. Moreover, their main characteristic is that they intelligently head precisely for the parts of the body that need their therapeutic effect most of all. And this is a real miracle.

- Can we say that the creation of the formula for the nanocapsule will minimize the environmental hazards of naphthalan? After all, naphthalan deposits are not unlimited...

- Yes, it is very important to spend the deposits of this unique resource rationally. And I think that the innovative formula of nanonaphthalan will increase chances of success in applying naphthalan in balneology. First of all, patients will be able to choose: take a bath in native naphthalan which is difficult to wash away or a water bath with nanocapsules of naphthenic hydrocarbons, whereby the therapeutic dose of this procedure has been minimized by many thousand times. What is very important is that baths designed by BIOOIL with the naphthalan bath balsam make it possible to extend the swimming season to the maximum, as the Naftalan resort is visited only in summer, and to provide naphthalan therapy in every corner of the globe, virtually everywhere and always. This is so-called naphthalan therapy outside resorts, which can be actively used in conjunction with sanatorium-resort departments in therapeutic and preventive medicine in remote parts of the field.

Is it not a prudent approach to the use of naphthalan oil the traditional use of which in the native form causes large quantities of waste? In this context, it is very important to emphasize that our production is based on the use of its waste, i.e. the used oil which is not fit for bathing, as the chemical indicators of naphthalan and its waste are the same and do not lose their properties. I should stress that we never bought naphthalan for recycling from SOCAR, and used the waste of this oil, buying it from the Central Hospital of Oil Workers and the Naftalan resort. The pure products we manufacture surpassed the boldest expectations with their medical effect, aesthetic condition and diversity. Therefore, the valuable natural source is clearly being saved. Why is this so important? I should cite an example. In the Soviet period in the summer season, vouchers for the Naftalan resort were distributed only through Moscow. The system of the naphthalan business was planned and did not allow us to make complete use of natural naphthalan with minimal losses, fill in the gaps, create more or less closed technological cycles and implement measures for the protection or sustainable use of recycled materials. It was very difficult to implement such a system in the USSR for economic, political and scientific reasons, but most importantly, because of officials' desire to fulfil the five-year plan at all costs, primarily through the depletion of nature. In the 1960-1980s, the rate of naphthalan consumption increased. From 1961 to 1988, demand for it tripled. After the use of naphthalan baths at the Naftalan resort, waste remained in other institutions - 1,000 tonnes of waste could collect in one year. They were kept in a recycled condition and were not used. The collapse of the Soviet Union, the Karabakh war and the economic recession led to a decline in demand for naphthalan and stopped the consumption of this unique material. The resumption of this growth is crucial in assessing how long we will have enough available resources. Alarming signals about the use of naphthalan have been given many times, but pessimistic forecasts have not been justified yet. But one thing is clear. The formation of this gift took millions of years, and people required only an insignificant part of this period to exhaust it to a dangerous degree. The uncontrolled exploitation of naphthalan during the break-up of the Soviet Union easily resulted in 3,000 tonnes of recycled materials being destroyed - used naphthalan accumulated at Naflalan resorts. In the 1990s, it was quietly taken out for recycling, and according to our information, due to the lack of fuel in Ganca, this raw material was added to heating oil and burned in boilers. In the 1980s, the Institute of Chemistry of Additives at the Azerbaijani Academy of Sciences processed up to 100 tonnes of native naphthalan per month to get deresinated products, taking orders from the Soviet Ministry of Medical Industry. Thus, within a few years, more than 5,000 tonnes of this valuable raw material were recycled, whereas it was possible to successfully use recycled naphthalan collected in containers at the Naflalan resort. Only improvements in technology and new methods for the application of naphthalan oil will help us get ahead of demand. I think that the zero waste business of BIOOIL is an unattainable ideal that every entrepreneur engaged in naphthalan production should strive for. The uniqueness of our company is that using waste we produce new environmentally friendly products and do not leave hazardous waste. After President Ilham Aliyev issued the instruction "On the socio-economic development of the town of Naftalan" in 2008, which pays particular attention to the comprehensive study and development of unique naphthalan oil along with the development of the town, I am confident that a breakthrough will take place in this area. This instruction will not only contribute to the development of the resort, but also open up tremendous opportunities for the development of the naphthalan business as a separate science, and this means that the environmental risks of naphthalan will decrease with each passing year.

- So, the products of BIOOIL are made based on the drug "naphthalan oil", which was patented in 2003 and licensed by the Ministry of Health of Azerbaijan, but ... in Ukraine. Why? In this case, where can we buy the products of your company?

- This will continue until Azerbaijan sets up production of containers - tubes in which our shampoos, balms, gels and other products are placed. The packaging should be highly technological and meet the GMP standard, and currently Ukraine has a plant for its manufacture. It is economically inefficient to deliver empty tubes to Azerbaijan. It was therefore decided to establish our production line in Ukraine, which is closer to Europe. It is very convenient in terms of export. It is important to understand that naphthalan is not only our national heritage, but the world's heritage, which is extracted only in one place in the world - in Azerbaijan. In addition to the fact that we should use it economically, we must also ensure everyone's free access to this wealth. Naphthalan treatment and the healing properties of this miraculous oil are known almost all over the world. But not everybody knows that these unique deposits are located in Azerbaijan, and the dissemination of reliable information about this miracle is one of our goals. Where do you buy our products? The answer is at any pharmacy in Baku. BIOOIL products are exported to many countries around the world, as well as to major institutions in the United States and Germany which conduct research into the effectiveness and quality of our products. Russia and Ukraine are engaged in profiled research into the naphthalan business. Also, in August 2009 we received a registration certificate of the European Union, which allows us to sell our products in the European Union (27 countries).