Part III.] Pdrax .Sixgii : Note on Manufr. of N gai Camphor. 265 
A Note on the Manufacture of 
Ngai Camphor from the 
Blumea balsamifera 
D. C. Of Burma. 
By PURaN SINGH, F. C. S. 
Member of the Pharmaceutical and Chemical Societies of Japan 
Acting Imperial Forest Chemist. 
Preliminary information regarding Ngai Camphor, its Origin 
AND Preparation. 
One of the earliest writers on the subject of the extraction of Ngai 
camphor was Dr. Mason. That the camphor is prepared in Southern 
Shan States and China from Blumea balsamifera D.C. was first recorded 
by him about the year 1883 in his “ Burma, Volume II, Botany ” in the 
following remarks : — 
“ One of the most abundant weeds throughout Burma is a species 
of Blumea that grows 6' to 8' high with leaves like Mullen, which when 
bruised emit a strong odour of camphor. Many years ago, the Tavovers 
informed me that they were in the habit of making an impure camphor 
from the weed by a very simple process, but Mr. O’Riley was the first to 
make a good article from it and to bring it to public notice. He made 
more than a hundred pounds, and the specimens which he sent to Calcutta 
were reported : ‘ In its refined form it is identical in all its properties 
with Chinese camphor.’ The plant is so abundant that Burma might 
supply half the world with camphor. Whenever the trees are cut 
down, this weed springs up and often to the exclusion of almost every, 
thing else ; so that an old clearing looks like a field under cultivation. 
The apparatus required for the distillation of camphor is extremely 
simple, consisting simply of a capacious vessel, wherein the material 
containing the camphor, cut up and mixed with water, is boiled ; and a 
head, consisting of one or more pots, to receive the products of distilla- 
tion which is kept cool by means of wet cloths, receives the crude 
camphor deposited during the process of condensation. A re-distillation 
by dry heat of the crude camphor, produced by the first process, is all 
that is required to produce the refined article.” 
The next writers of importance to whom we are indebted for valu- 
able contributions on our knowledge of the same subject were Hanbury 
and Dr. A. Henry, F.L.S. Here is a short note (quoted in the Kew 
Bulletin of November 1895 from Hooker’s leones Plantacum) from 
