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somewhat more brittle and less hard, is less volatile, and finally has, 
unlike common camphor, no great tendency to sublime spontaneously 
in the interior of the vessels in which it is kept. 
Like ordinary camphor, it is insoluble in water, but dissolves readily in 
alcohol and in ether. It turns the jfiane of polarisation to the right, and 
for that reason is sometimes referred to as d-borneol. 
r Reactions of Borneo camphor . — By heating with phosphoric acid anhy- 
dride (P2O5), borneol is changed into a hydrocarbon, called Borneen, by 
the dehydrating action of P2O5, thus : 
CioHi3O=H2O-|-CioHi0 
Borneo camphor. Borneen or Borneo 
camphene. 
Towards zinc chloride and dilute sulphuric acid it is very stable. 
Nitric acid as oxidising agent changes Borneo camphor first into 
Laurus camphor and further into the oxidation products of camphor like 
camphoric acid, campholic acid, etc. 
By the action of bromine and hydro-halogens on borneol unstable 
additive products are formed. 
Borneol, as has already been stated, may be regarded as a secondary 
alcohol. As such, it is changed by oxidation into the ketone, CiqHj 0O, 
which is camphor and which is optically active always in the same 
direction as the borneol from Avhich it is produced. 
2CioHi8O-fO2=2CioHi0O + 2H2O 
Borneol. Camphor 
Berthelot obtained borneol by heating ordinary camphor for a long 
time with an alcoholic solution of caustic potash. It can also be readily 
obtained from d- or l-camphor by reduction with sodium in alcoholic 
solution or in indifferent solvents, but thus prepared borneol is never pure 
but is mixed up with iso-borneol. 
The most important ester of borneol is Bornyl acetate, which occurs 
very commonly in volatile oils. 
iii. Blumea. or Ngai camphor {l-borneol), C^^oHjgO. 
This variety of camphor, as has already been mentioned, is manufac- 
tured from the Blumea balsamifera D.C., which is called ngai by the 
Chinese. The crude Ngai camphor, ngai -fen, appears in dirty white 
crystalhne grains and contains more or less of vegetable remains as 
impurities. The refined Ngai camphor, which is called ngai-p' -ien, is, 
however, perfectly colourless. 
