350 
Synthetic  Camphor. 
( Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
1      August,  1907. 
medicinal  purposes  and  as  a  cosmetic.  Daring  the  above-mentioned 
period  the  price  of  camphor  was  doubled. 
The  amount  of  camphor  used  for  various  purposes  is  estimated  at 
from  six  to  eight  million  pounds.  According  to  a  bulletin  recently 
issued  by  the  Japanese  Department  of  Finance,  these  figures 
appear  high.  The  money  value  of  the  camphor  imported  into  this 
country  at  present  approximates  one  and  a  half  million  dollars,  and 
on  account  of  the  monopoly  and  the  fear  of  a  possible  further 
restricted  supply,  unusual  efforts  have  been  made  to  produce  cam- 
phor synthetically.  The  outlook  for  making  camphor  both  syn- 
thetically and  from  natural  sources  in  the  near  future  in  the  United 
States  is  promising.  The  writer  is  in  possession  of  samples  derived 
from  both  sources.  It  is  reported  that  synthetic  camphor  is  a  com- 
mercial article  in  Germany.  A  former  employe  of  the  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture  is  at  present  investigating  the  commer- 
cial possibility  of  producing  the  natural  article  in  this  country. 
This  paper  deals  largely  with  U.  S.  patent  literature  on  the  sub- 
ject of  synthetic  camphor.  The  basic  substance  of  most  patents 
for  the  manufacture  of  camphor  is  some  variety  of  turpentine, 
American  or  French,  or  any  other  product  containing  a  sufficient 
amount  of  pinene  either  dextro  or  levo-rotatory.  All  of  the  opera- 
tions covered  by  present  patents  may  be  considered  under  two 
heads,  namely,  the  conversion  of  pinene  into  borneol,  isoborneol  or 
camphene,  with  subsequent  oxidation  of  these  products  into  camphor. 
These  two  phases  are  fully  brought  out  by  the  following  abstracts  of 
the  patents  themselves. 
The  accompanying  structural  formulas  represent  the  successive 
changes  involved  in  making  camphor  from  turpentine,  including  the 
production  of  camphene  as  an  intermediate  step  : 
CH3 
CH. 
3 
CH2  C 
CH. 
Addition  of 
hydrochloric 
acid. 
CH, 
CHC1 
H3C— C— CH3  ! 
H3C— C— CH3 
CH: 
CH 
CH2  CH  CH, 
Bornyl  chloride. 
Splitting  off 
hydrochloric 
acid. 
