CAMPHOR, NATURAL AND SYNTHETIC 



By PERCY A. HOUSEMAN, Ph.D. (Wiirz), A.I.C. 

 Chemist to the British Camphor Co., Ltd. 



History and Occurrence 



The history of camphor reaches back at least fifteen hundred 

 years. Two distinct varieties of the drug exist. The true — 

 Japanese — camphor occurs in a tree (Cinnamomum Camphord) 

 belonging to the laurel family indigenous to China and Japan, 

 while Borneo camphor, which is known chemically as borneol, 

 is found in Dryobalanops aromatica, one of the Dipterocarpaccce, 

 which grows in Borneo and Sumatra. The earlier accounts of 

 camphor refer to the latter variety. Many attempts have been 

 made to introduce the camphor tree into other countries, 1 with a 

 view to camphor production, but the experiments are very 

 hazardous, for though the tree itself thrives well in almost any 

 subtropical country, about fifty years must elapse before a good 

 yield of camphor is produced. Moreover, the amount of camphor 

 produced by each tree varies within very wide limits, the cause 

 of this great variability not being understood. Since the Chino- 

 Japanese War of 1894 the bad administration of the Chinese has 

 been largely replaced by an efficient Japanese administration, 

 whose monopoly of the supply of natural camphor is therefore 

 scarcely likely to be disturbed for a long time. Their only 

 competitor is the synthetic article, which has been produced on 

 a commercial scale for about five years past. The following 

 tables show the amount and value of the camphor exported from 

 China and Japan since 1905 : 2 



1 See e.g. Board of Trade Journal, July 18, 1907 (camphor trees in Federated 

 Malay States); Colonial Office Report, 1907, Ann. No. 527 (camphor trees in 

 Ceylon) ; Battandier,./. pharm. chim. 1907 (25), 182-3 (camphor trees in Algeria) ; 

 Chemist and Druggist, 1907, 109 (camphor trees in the United States). 



2 These statistics have been compiled on the basis 1 kin = 1*32 lb. avoirdupois ; 

 1 yen = is. o^d. ; 1 picul = 1333 lb. avoirdupois ; 1 Haikwan tael = 3s. $\d. For 

 the figures taken from the official Japanese and Chinese trade reports I am indebted 

 to the Secretary of the London Chamber of Commerce. 



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