Dippel's Oil

Dippel's Oil (sometimes known as Bone Oil) is a nitrogenous by-product of the destructive distillation of bone char. This liquid is dark colored and highly viscous with an unpleasant smell. The oil contains the organic compound pyrrole. It is named after its inventor, Johann Conrad Dippel.

Dippel's oil had a number of uses which are now mostly obsolete. It could be used as an alcohol denaturant, an ingredient in sheep dips, an animal repellent (tradenamed as "Renardine"), an insecticide, a chemical warfare harassing agent, and also had medicinal uses. By not being lethal, the oil was claimed to not be in breach of the Geneva Protocol. During the desert campaign of World War II, the oil was used to render wells undrinkable and thus deny their use to the enemy.