March, 1910.] 



203 



DRUGS AND MEDICINAL PLANTS, 



NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL 

 CAMPHOR. 



An Important Lecture. 



(Prom the Indian Forester, Vol, XXXV., 

 No. 12, December, 1909.) 

 At the Congress of Applied Chemistry 

 on 20th May, 1909, Prof. Haller, whose 

 lecture on the Chemistry of Camphor 

 preceded the above, said that the 

 extended use of camphor dated from 

 the time when celluloid, of which it 

 formed a constituent part, became the 

 object of intensive and increasing manu- 

 facture. The important part it played 

 in the industry of this plastic material, 

 and the special qualities which it lent 

 to the nitrocellulose with which it was 

 incorporated, rendered it valuable for 

 other purposes. It was used for the 

 manufacture of pegamoid, a new sub- 

 stitute for leather, and entered into the 

 composition of certain smokeless pow- 

 ders either as such or in the form of 

 borneol. They were award that cam- 

 phor was prepared by distillation with 

 steam from the wood of the camphor 

 laurel, a fine tree which grew in Japan, 

 in Formosa, were it still formed im- 

 mense virgin forests more and more 

 difficult of access, in various Japanese 

 Islands, and also in several districts of 

 Central China. Since 1899 Japan had 

 secured the monopoly of the camphor 

 crop throughout its territory and in 

 Formosa. According to statistics pub- 

 lished in a Japanese journal and re- 

 produced by the Chemist and Druggist, 

 the amount of camphor exported from 

 Japan increased from 280.892 kilos, 

 valued at 200,452f., in 1868, to 1,834,594 

 kilos, valued at 130,691,831f., in 1907; 

 and during the same time the price 

 increased from 69f, to 708f, per 100 kilos. 

 In spite of an increasing production in 

 Chjna it appeared from the statistical 

 evidence that the aggregate output of 

 camphor was not increasing, and that 

 they must rather expect to see it 

 gradually diminish. And, since the de- 

 mand on the contrary went on increas- 

 ing, it was easy to understand the high 

 prices reached, which had driven the 

 camphor industry to make up the defi- 

 ciency in the production of the natural 

 substance. 



It was about 19C5 that the first at- 

 tempts to supplement the supply by 

 artificial camphor came into view. All 

 the processes of manufacture started 

 with pinene, a carbon compound found 

 in the essential oil of turpentine. The 

 26 



latter was obtained by steam distillation 

 from the resin yielded by various coni- 

 fers growing in the forests of the tem- 

 perate zone. The principal countries of 

 origin were, in order of importance, 

 the United States, France, Russia, the 

 Central European States, Germany and 

 Austria. In recent years Spain had 

 also contributed to the world's markets. 

 The French essence produced from the 

 sea pine was considered to hold the 

 first place in respect of quality ; that 

 of the United States, from pitch-pine, 

 was less valued ; and those of Russia 

 and Germany, obtained chiefly from the 

 Pinus silvestris, were of inferior quality. 

 The question of industrial camphor 

 depended as much on the price of a 

 good essence as on the methods employed, 

 The efforts expended on the problem 

 had resulted in no new fact or original 

 discovery. The numerous methods em- 

 ployed were only improvements or 

 variants of reactions previously known. 

 They might be divided into two large 

 groups according to whether the essence 

 was first converted into hydrochlorate 

 of pinene, or was submitted direct to 

 the action of organic acids. The high 

 prices of camphor, to which they owed 

 the evolution of the new industry, had 

 only been temporary, for reasons which 

 it was extremely difficult to discover. 

 Only those establishments which in the 

 fortunate period of high prices found 

 themselves iu possession of an economical 

 and thoroughly efficient process, and 

 were in a position to organise a prompt 

 supply in response to the demand of 

 the moment had been able to take ad- 

 vantage of the remunerative prices and 

 recover the cost of installation. He 

 should add that the camphor which 

 they produced apart from its optical 

 inactivity, possessed in all respects the 

 same properties as natural camphor 

 when it was sufficiently refined. Com- 

 parisons had been made between the 

 camphor industry and the alizarine 

 and indigotine industries, and some 

 enthusiastic spirits had not been 

 afraid to celebrate this new triumph 

 of industrial science. With regard to 

 the two substances mentioned, science 

 and industry had incontestably got the 

 better of nature. The cultivation of 

 madder had completely disappeared 

 from the departments of the Midi in 

 France, and artificial indigo was on the 

 way to ruin the immense and numerous 

 plantations of India, Java and Guate- 

 mala. Would the same thing happen 

 with camphor? It would be rash to 

 say so, tor various reasons which he 



