Camphor: A Diminishing Industry of Great Importance :: Botany

Camphor A Diminishing Industry of Great immensenessCamphor, a member of the Family Lauraceae (Heywood, 1978), is much valued in unalike parts of the world, particularly in China. This prized botanical has been said to originate in China, but there have been references to Japan, Taiwan and East Asia in resembling time periods. Camphor is abundant in mostly sub-tropical countries including India and Ceylon. The camphor manoeuver in any case thrives in Egypt, the Canary Islands, Argentina, Europe, Florida, California, and Formosa. As trade routes to the east developed, the camphor manoeuvre began to flourish. Particularly chief(prenominal) to Formosa, its abundance on the island formerly gave Japan control of the natural provision of camphor (VanNostrand 1968). Characteristics The camphor tree is an evergreen tree possessing many branches, teentsy clustered white-hot flowers, and red berries much like cinnamon. The genus Cinnamomum camphora tree grows to be 80 - 120 feet tall and the trunk reaches 6 feet in diameter (Internet target 3). Because of its enormous size, it is known to be a provider of great amounts of shade, which is its original purpose in Florida, California and other southern states. The camphor tree is link as a reminiscent of the lime or linden tree originally from Europe (Internet site 2). It is a near relative to Cinnamomum zeylanicum (Janick 1969). In order to obtain a product from the tree, certain procedures moldiness be accomplished. The old method of extracting camphor has yet remained and involves chopping down a tree that has aged over fifty years. The camphor is ready to be extracted only if the tree is over fifty years old. After vamooseting the tree down, it is cut up into small pieces and distilled by primitive means. The crude product obtained is pass on distilled to remove the crude oil of camphor present and obtain crystalline camphor (VanNostrand 1968). According to Dreamlink throttle of the United Kingdom, the o il is extracted by steam distillation from the pulverized wood, branches and ambo and by condensing those vapors. There are three separate fractions of the camphor oil white beingness the lightest, brown as the medium oil, and yellow being the heaviest oil. Each has the camphoraceous sharp odor (Internet site 3). The camphor crystallizes from the oily mountain of the distillate and purification is completed by pressing the wood and also by sublimation. A notable fact about camphor is the abundance that contribute be gathered even in only a small amount of trees.