Petroleum and its derivatives are woven deeply into modern medicine, from the petroleum jelly sitting in nearly every hospital supply closet to the synthetic polymers that make up IV tubing, surgical sutures, and controlled-release drug capsules. The connection runs far deeper than most people realize. While crude oil is best known as fuel, the chemical building blocks extracted from it serve as raw materials for a remarkably wide range of medical products, some applied directly to the body and others forming the devices and packaging that keep healthcare running.
Petroleum Jelly and Skin Protection
The most recognizable petroleum product in medicine is petrolatum, commonly sold as petroleum jelly. Dermatologists have relied on it for well over a century to protect damaged skin and promote wound healing. A recent clinical study comparing petrolatum with extra virgin olive oil found that both improved skin barrier function, but petrolatum went further by also reducing transepidermal water loss, which is the rate at which moisture escapes through the skin. Its effects on reducing flaking and skin redness were more pronounced than those of olive oil.1PubMed Central. Effects of Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Petrolatum on Skin Barrier Function and Microtopography
This is not just a cosmetic preference. After certain skin-damaging medical treatments, petrolatum is used to speed recovery. In patients treated with 5-fluorouracil, a topical chemotherapy drug used for precancerous skin lesions, applying pure white petroleum jelly dramatically cut redness and recovery time for both hydration and barrier function compared to untreated skin on the opposite side of the body.2SKIN The Journal of Cutaneous Medicine. Expedited Resolution of 5-Fluorouracil-Induced Erythema and Barrier Dysfunction with White Petrolatum Dermatologists often prefer it over fancier ointments for post-surgical wound care precisely because it is simple, well-studied, and unlikely to cause allergic reactions.
Mineral Oil as a Laxative and More
Mineral oil, a liquid petroleum distillate, has been used medically for generations as a lubricant laxative. It works by coating the inside of the bowel and the stool with a waterproof film that slows water absorption, keeping the stool soft and easier to pass.3PubMed Central. Mineral oil: safety and use as placebo in REDUCE-IT and other clinical studies It has been a go-to remedy for chronic constipation in both adults and children, though its use in young children and elderly patients comes with important caveats covered later in this article.
Mineral oil also shows up in eye care. In a mouse model of evaporative dry eye caused by meibomian gland dysfunction, an ophthalmic solution containing mineral oil reduced plugged gland openings, lowered corneal staining scores (a measure of surface damage), and improved tear film stability compared to untreated eyes. The treated group’s tear breakup time jumped to about 19 seconds versus roughly 1.5 seconds in the untreated group.4PubMed Central. Improvement of Evaporative Dry Eye With Meibomian Gland Dysfunction in Model Mice by Treatment With Ophthalmic Solution Containing Mineral Oil Many over-the-counter artificial tear products already contain mineral oil as an ingredient, reflecting how mainstream this petroleum derivative is in ophthalmology.
Coal Tar in Treating Psoriasis
Another petroleum-adjacent product with a long medical history is coal tar, a byproduct of processing coal and petroleum. It has been used to treat psoriasis for hundreds of years, and it remains an active ingredient in both prescription and over-the-counter formulations today. A newer foam vehicle containing 2% coal tar has been shown to be versatile enough to treat psoriasis in areas that are typically hard to manage, including the scalp, skin folds, and the palms and soles of the feet.5PubMed Central. Use of Topical Coal Tar Foam for the Treatment of Psoriasis in Difficult-to-treat Areas Coal tar works by slowing the rapid skin cell growth that characterizes psoriasis, reducing inflammation, and relieving itching. Despite sounding unpleasant, it remains clinically useful because it is effective and relatively inexpensive.
Petroleum-Derived Polymers in Medical Devices
Step into any hospital and you are surrounded by petroleum. The plastic tubing carrying IV fluids, the bags storing donated blood, the catheters threaded into veins, the syringes, the sterile packaging on every disposable instrument: nearly all of it traces back to petrochemicals. Polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, is one of the most common medical plastics. In its rigid form it is too stiff for flexible applications, so plasticizers, most often phthalates, are added to make it soft enough for uses like blood storage bags and the tubing that connects patients to dialysis machines or delivers medications intravenously.6Biosurface and Biotribology. Applications of synthetic polymers in clinical medicine – Section: 3.1 Containers Thermoplastic polyurethanes, another petroleum-derived polymer, are widely used for catheters because they are inherently flexible without needing plasticizers.
Surgical materials tell a similar story. Synthetic absorbable sutures, the kind that dissolve on their own after a wound heals, are commonly made from polymers like polyglycolic acid, polylactic acid, polycaprolactone, and polydioxanone, all of which are derived from petrochemical feedstocks. Non-absorbable sutures use materials like nylon, polypropylene, and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).7ScienceDirect. Advanced Technologies and Polymer Materials for Surgical Sutures Surgical meshes used in hernia repair overwhelmingly rely on polypropylene because of its strength and low failure rate.8PubMed. Surgical meshes: types, clinical applications, and associated complications
Drug Delivery and Pharmaceutical Excipients
Petroleum’s role does not stop at devices and topical treatments. It also shapes how drugs are formulated and delivered inside the body. Conventional oil-in-water creams commonly use mineral oil and petrolatum as excipients, the inactive ingredients that give a medication its form and help it reach the right tissue. One study examining conventional cream formulations found that the petrolatum-based control had the highest viscosity and lowest separation at room temperature, properties that help a topical drug stay where you put it and release its active ingredient at a steady rate.9AAPS PharmSciTech. Sustainable Alternatives to Petroleum-Derived Excipients in Pharmaceutical Oil-in-Water Creams
For drugs that need to be delivered internally over a sustained period, one of the most widely used carrier materials is poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid), or PLGA. This biodegradable polymer, synthesized from petrochemical-derived monomers, has been approved by both the FDA and the European Medicines Agency for use in injectable drug delivery systems.10PubMed. PLGA-based nanoparticles: an overview of biomedical applications PLGA nanoparticles can be engineered to protect a drug from breaking down too quickly, release it at a controlled rate over weeks or months, and even target specific organs or cell types.11PubMed Central. Poly Lactic-co-Glycolic Acid (PLGA) as Biodegradable Controlled Drug Delivery Carrier This technology is already used in commercially available treatments, including long-acting injectable formulations for prostate cancer and schizophrenia, among others.
Oil-Based Vaccine Adjuvants
Vaccines sometimes use petroleum-derived oils to boost the immune response. Water-in-oil emulsions, where tiny droplets of a water-based solution are suspended in an oil phase, represent one of the more potent classes of vaccine adjuvants. The concept dates back more than half a century to incomplete Freund’s adjuvant, which was used in clinical trials for polio and influenza vaccines because of its strong ability to amplify the immune response.12PubMed. The use of oil adjuvants in therapeutic vaccines While early oil-based adjuvants sometimes caused too much local irritation for routine prophylactic use, refined versions remain important in therapeutic vaccines, particularly in cancer immunotherapy research, where a strong immune response is the entire point.
Nitrile Gloves and Protective Equipment
Medical gloves offer another example of petroleum’s quiet presence. Natural latex gloves, made from rubber tree sap, have been a staple for decades, but allergic reactions are a persistent problem. In a survey of dental practitioners, roughly 85% of those who reported symptoms like itching, redness, swelling, or wheezing were using latex gloves, while only about 15% of symptomatic users were wearing nitrile.13PubMed Central. Comparative Assessment of Hypersensitivity Reactions on Use of Latex and Nitrile Gloves Among General Dental Practitioners: A Cross-Sectional Study Nitrile is a synthetic rubber derived from petroleum, and it has become the default replacement for healthcare workers with latex sensitivity. The vast majority of latex-sensitive dentists in that study had already switched to non-latex, powder-free gloves like nitrile or vinyl. Beyond gloves, petroleum-derived synthetics are found in face shields, gowns, and the melt-blown polypropylene that forms the filtration layer in surgical masks and respirators.
When Petroleum Products Cause Harm
For all their usefulness, petroleum-derived medical products are not without risks. The most dramatic example is lipoid pneumonia, a lung condition caused by inhaling or aspirating mineral oil or other lipids.14PubMed. Lipoid pneumonia: spectrum of clinical and radiologic manifestations It is rare and often misdiagnosed, since its symptoms and imaging findings can mimic pneumonia or even lung cancer.15PubMed Central. Exogenous Lipoid Pneumonia Complicated by Mineral Oil Aspiration in a Patient With Chronic Constipation: A Case Report and Review The risk is highest in people who have difficulty swallowing, such as elderly patients or young children. A study of children with lipoid pneumonia found that all had a history of mineral oil use, most commonly prescribed for constipation, and nearly all had at least one risk factor for aspiration.16PubMed. Evolution of exogenous lipoid pneumonia in children: clinical aspects, radiological aspects and the role of bronchoalveolar lavage This is the main reason clinicians are cautious about giving oral mineral oil to very young children or to anyone who might aspirate it, including people with neurological conditions that impair swallowing.
A subtler concern involves phthalate plasticizers leaching from PVC medical devices. Because phthalates are not chemically bonded to the plastic, they can migrate out of tubing and bags into whatever fluid is passing through. This means patients receiving IV infusions, blood transfusions, dialysis, or enteral tube feeding may be exposed to measurable levels of these chemicals.17PubMed Central. Leaching of Phthalates from Medical Supplies and Their Implications for Exposure The clinical significance of this exposure is still debated, but it has prompted efforts to develop PVC alternatives and phthalate-free plasticizers for medical devices, especially those used with newborns or for long-duration therapies where cumulative exposure could be higher.
The Push Toward Alternatives
Growing environmental and health concerns have spurred research into replacing petroleum-derived ingredients in pharmaceutical formulations with bio-based alternatives. One recent study tested plant-derived substitutes for mineral oil and petrolatum in standard cream formulations and found that some bio-based options achieved comparable or even slightly better drug permeation through skin, though the petrolatum-based control still held advantages in stability and viscosity.9AAPS PharmSciTech. Sustainable Alternatives to Petroleum-Derived Excipients in Pharmaceutical Oil-in-Water Creams Meanwhile, broader green chemistry initiatives are pushing pharmaceutical synthesis toward sustainable feedstocks, reduced waste, and improved atom economy, meaning less raw material wasted per unit of drug produced.18Sustainable Chemistry One World. Recent advances in green chemistry approaches for pharmaceutical synthesis
That said, replacing petroleum in medicine is not as straightforward as swapping one ingredient for another. Many petroleum-derived polymers have decades of clinical performance data behind them. PLGA, polypropylene mesh, and PVC tubing are not used out of laziness; they are used because they have known and predictable behavior inside the human body, they can be sterilized reliably, and they are inexpensive to produce at scale. Any replacement has to match that safety and performance profile while also being cost-effective enough for global health systems to adopt. For the foreseeable future, petroleum-derived materials will remain the backbone of medical manufacturing while bio-based alternatives continue to mature.
Crude Oil’s Untapped Pharmaceutical Potential
Research has even turned back to crude oil itself as a potential source of new drug candidates. A recent analysis explored the chemical complexity of unrefined petroleum and found that its molecular scaffolds, particularly the rigid, carbon-rich frameworks of steranes, hopanes, and porphyrins, overlap structurally with known classes of therapeutic compounds. These molecules exist naturally in crude oil at concentrations that could be practically useful, potentially reducing the synthetic effort required to produce drug candidates and expanding the chemical territory available for drug discovery.19Europe PMC. Black Gold in Medicine: Rediscovering the Pharmacological Potential This line of research is still early-stage, but it represents a fascinating inversion: instead of refining petroleum into fuel and treating the rest as waste, chemists are asking whether some of those “waste” fractions contain molecules worth developing into medicines.
Petroleum and the Global Drug Supply Chain
Petroleum’s role in medicine extends beyond what goes into a pill or onto a wound. The plastics, solvents, and energy inputs required to manufacture, package, and transport pharmaceuticals all depend on petroleum infrastructure. When geopolitical disruptions affect oil supply, the ripple effects can reach hospital pharmacies. Modeling of the global pharmaceutical supply chain has estimated that baseline expected drug shortages are already substantial, with stark disparities between high-income countries, where shortages affect a fraction of a percent of the supply, and low-income countries, where shortages can affect the vast majority of needed medications.20ScienceDirect. Effects of geopolitical strain on global pharmaceutical supply chain design and drug shortages Petroleum price volatility and supply disruptions add another layer of fragility to a system that is already stretched thin in much of the world. The dependence is deep enough that any serious conversation about reducing petroleum use in society has to grapple with how to maintain the medical supply chain at the same time.