Drugs and Medicinal Products. ( 



Shanghai, in the Island of Hainan and 

 in the Japanese Islands Kinshu and 

 Shikoku, largely abounding in Formosa, 

 the head quarters of the industry. The 

 products, chiefly camphor and camphor 

 oil, are obtained by distillation, details 

 of which are given below. 



Cultivation in Malaya. 



The following notes on the cultivation 

 of the plant in the Government Experi- 

 mental Plantation, in Selangor, the 

 preparation of the crude and purified 

 camphor and camphor oil are intended 

 only as a preliminary note, as it is hoped 

 to prepare an article on the subject 

 when the investigation is more complete. 



The first experiments in camphor by 

 the F. M. S. Agricultural Department 

 were initiated in Batu Tiga five years ago 

 by Mr. Stanley Arden. 



The seeds of the Batu Tiga trees were 

 obtained from the Yokohama Nursery 

 Company and sown in May, 1904. 



They were planted out in their perma- 

 nent quarters 10' x 10' in December of the 

 same year. The growth as a whole is 

 very good, while the growth in some 

 cases is exceptional. The average height 

 of the trees is now about 18 feet, the 

 tallest tree being over 26 feet. 



A further supply of seeds and young 

 plants was received from Japan in May, 

 1907, and planted out in the Experiment 

 Plantation, Kuala Lumpur, in September 

 of the same year. 



The growth of the plants in this case 

 has also been good, the trees averaging 

 in one plot 5 ft. 6 inches in height and 

 4 ft. 6 inches in breadth ; this plot was 

 cut over, bringing all the trees to one 

 even height of 5 ft., and leaving the 

 sides untouched and yielded a crop of 

 clippings averaging 1,226 lbs. per acre ; 

 the actual yield of camphor from which 

 amounted to 0'6 per cent. 



Preparation of Camphor. 

 Method of distillation :— 



The first experiments were made on a 

 very small scale in a small copper still of 

 7 litres (= 12*3 pints) capacity and cap- 

 able of holding only about \\ lbs. of 

 leaves or about 4 lbs. of twigs, using an 

 ordinary glass Liebig condenser to con- 

 dense the camphor and oil. 



Steam was generated in a separate 

 boiler and passed through the leaves or 

 twigs in the still. 



Preparation of Material. 

 Experiments were made with material 

 prepared in the following manner (1) the 

 unbroken leaves, (2) leaves cut up into 

 small pieces, (3) air dried leaves, (4) 



I [December, 1909. 



mouldy leaves, (5) twigs cut up into small 

 pieces about an inch long. The leaves 

 and twigs used in these experiments 

 were cut by coolies using parangs (knives) 

 only. 



On a commercial scale some kind of 

 chaff cutting or other similar machine 

 could be used for the purpose, to save 

 labour, either worked by hand, by 

 bullocks, or machine driven as circum- 

 stances necessitate. 



Preliminary Experiments. 

 11 'a kilograms =26 lbs. of primings con- 

 sisting of 64'9 per cent, leaves and 35*1 

 per centf twigs were received for experi- 

 ment from the Superintendent of Ex- 

 perimental Plantations (Mr. J. W. Camp- 

 bell) being the part prunings from a 

 five year old tree at the Experimental 

 Garden, Batu Tiga, Selangor. 



As only the small apparatus (described 

 above) was at the time available for the 

 experiment, the distillation had to be 

 extended over a number of days, and 

 the results of each distillation were kept 

 separate for comparison and carried on 

 under different conditions as described 

 above, entirely for experimental pur- 

 poses, in order to ascertain if these 

 conditions gave different results. 



The following results were obtained:— 



(1) 1st distillation. 400 grams of cut 

 leaves gave 4 89 grams of camphor and 

 camphor oil = l'22 per cent. 



This consisted of camphor 1*16 per cent, 

 and oil 0'06 per cent. 



(2) 2nd distillation. 500 grams of 

 leaves more finely cut than in (1) gave 

 5'86 grams of camphor and oil = 1*17 per 

 cent, 



This also consisted mainly of pure 

 camphor. 



(3) 3rd distillation. 1,500 grams of 

 twigs gave 675 grams of camphor and 

 oil=0'45 per cent. 



This also consisted chiefly of camphor. 



(4) 4th distillation. 500 grams of leaves 

 and twigs gave 6*25 grams of camphor 

 and oil =1 "25 per cent. 



(5) 5th distillation. 1,000 grams of 

 twigs gave 0'6 grams of camphor and 

 oil=0'60 per cent. 



(6) 6th distillation. 500 grams of 

 leaves (mouldy) gave 6*26 grams of 

 camphor and oil =1 "25 per cent. 



(7) 7th distillation. 500 grams of 

 leaves previously dried in the sun for 

 two or three days, gave 6'27 grams, 

 (weight of dried leaves=300 grams) cam- 

 phor and oil =1*25 per cent. Calculated 

 on air dried leaves=2"09 per cent. 



