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Camphor
(Cinnamomum camphora)
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Camphor
Where To Find It: China, Japan, and adjacent parts of East
Asia. Formosa official in the U.S.P. Dryobalanops aromatica is indigenous
to Borneo and Sumatra.
Camphor is a white crystalline substance, obtained from the tree
Cinnamonum camphora, but the name has been given to various
concrete odorous volatile products, found in different aromatic
plants. The commercial Camphor comes only from C. camphora
and Dryobalanops camphora (fam. Dipterocarpacaea).
The first gives our official Camphor, the latter the Borneo Camphor,
which is much valued in the East, but unknown in Europe and America.
C. camphora is an evergreen tree looking not unlike our linden;
it grows to a great size, is manybranched, flowers white, small
and clustered, fruit a red berry much like cinnamon. While the tree
grows in China, etc., it can be cultivated successfully in sub-tropical
countries, such as India and Ceylon, and it will thrive in Egypt,
Formosa, Madagascar, Canary Islands and southern parts of Europe,
California, Florida, and also in Argentina. It grows so slowly that
the return financially is a long investment. Some growers think
that Camphor cannot be taken from the trees till they are fifty
years old. In Japan and Formosa the drug comes from the root, trunk
and branches of the tree by sublimation, but there is less injury
done to the tree in the American plantations, as it is taken there
from the leaves and twigs of the oldest trees. A Camphor oil exudes
in the process of extracting Camphor, which is valued by the Chinese,
used for medicinal purposes. Two substances are found in commerce
under the name of oil of Camphor: one is the produce of C. cinnamonum,
and is known as Formosa or Japanese oil of Camphor; the other as
East Indian oil of Camphor, from the D. aromatica but this
oil is not found in European or American trade. It is less volatile
than the other, and has a distinctive odour; it is highly prized
by the Chinese, who use it for embalming purposes and to scent soap.
The Chinese attribute many virtues to it. It is mentioned by Marco
Polo in the thirteenth century and Camoens in 1571, who called it
the 'balsam of disease.' During the last few years large quantities
have come into the American and European markets as Japanese oil;
it varies in quality and colour from a thin watery oil to a thick
black one. It is imported in tin cans and varies greatly in the
amount of Camphor it contains, some cans having had all the solid
principle extracted before importation. The odour is peculiar, like
sassafras and distinctly camphoraceous; this oil is said to be used
in Japan for burning, making varnish and for Chinese inks, as a
diluent for artists' colours; it has a capacity for dissolving resins
that oil of Turps has not. The properties in the oil are much the
same as in Camphor, but it is more stimulant and very useful in
complaints of stomach and bowels, in spasmodic cholera and flatulent
colic. It is also used as a rubefacient and sedative liniment, and
if diluted with Olive oil or soap is excellent for local rheumatism,
sprains, bruises, and neuralgia dose, 2 or 3 minims. There is an
erroneous idea that Camphor acts as a preventive to infectious diseases.
It is very acrid and in large doses very poisonous, and should be
used cautiously in certain heart cases. It is a well-known preventive
of moths and other insects, such as worms in wood; natural history
cabinets are often made of it, the wood of the tree being occasionally
imported to make cabinets for entomologists. The Dryobalanops oil
of Camphor is said to be found in trees too young to produce Camphor,
and is said to be the first stage of the development of Camphor,
as it is found in the cavities of the trunk, which later on become
filled with Camphor. Its chief constituent is an oil called Borneene.
The D. aromatica tree, found in Sumatra and Borneo, grows
to an enormous height, often over 100 feet, and trunk 6 or 7 feet
in diameter. The Camphor of the older trees exists in concrete masses,
in longitudinal cavities, in the heart of the tree, 1 1/2 feet long
at certain distances apart. The only way of finding out if Camphor
has formed in the tree is by incision. This Camphor is chiefly used
for funeral rites, and any that is exported is bought by the Chinese
at a high price, as they use it for embalming, it being less volatile
than ordinary Camphor. Another Camphor called N'gai, obtained from
the Blumea Balcamferi (Compositae), differs chemically
from the Borneo species, being levogyrate, and is converted by boiling
nitric acid, to a substance considered identical with stearoptene
of Chrysanthemum parthenium. This plant grows freely in the
author's garden, and is known in Great Britain as Double-flowered
Bush Fever-Few.
Modern uses:Camphor has a strong, penetrating,
fragrant odour, a bitter, pungent taste, and is slightly cold to
the touch like menthol leaves; locally it is an irritant, numbs
the peripheral sensory nerves, and is slightly antiseptic; it is
not readily absorbed by the mucous membrane, but is easily absorbed
by the subcutaneous tissue- it combines in the body with glucuronic
acid, and in this condition is voided by the urine. Experiments
on frogs show a depressant action to the spinal column, no motor
disturbance, but a slow increasing paralysis; in mankind it causes
convulsions, from the effect it has on the motor tract of the brain;
it stimulates the intellectual centres and prevents narcotic drugs
taking effect, but in cases of nervous excitement it has a soothing
and quieting result. Authorities vary as to its effect on blood
pressure; some think it raises it, others take an opposite view;
but it has been proved valuable as an excitant in cases of heart
failure, whether due to diseases or as a result of infectious fevers,
such as typhoid and pneumonia, not only in the latter case as a
stimulant to circulation, but as preventing the growth of pneumococci.
Camphor is used in medicine internally for its calming influence
in hysteria, nervousness and neuralgia, and for serious diarrhoea,
and externally as a counter-irritant in rheumatisms, sprains bronchitis,
and in inflammatory conditions, and sometimes in conjunction with
menthol and phenol for heart failure; it is often given hypodermically,
3 to 5 grains dissolved in 20 to 30 minims of sterile Olive oil
- the effect will last about two hours. In nervous diseases it may
be given in substance or in capsules or in spirit; dose 2 to 5 grains.
Its great value is in colds, chills, and in all inflammatory complaints;
it relieves irritation of the sexual organs.
Other Names: Laurel Camphor. Gum Camphor.
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