True Camphor Oil

#### Camphor Oil, "True". An essential oil is produced by steam distillation from the wood, rootstumps, and branches of the variety of **Cinnamomum Camphora **known as **Hon-Sho**, growing in Formosa and Japan. Along with the crude oil comes a solid, partly crystalline mass of crude **Camphor**. The oil **i**s separated from the crude camphor by filterpressing. This yields the **Crude Camphor Oil**. The crude oil is subsequently rectified under vacuum, and yields another 50% of crude camphor. The remaining 50% of the filterpressed crude camphor oil is now free of camphor. It contains light terpenes, cineole, safrole, terpineol, sesquiterpenes and sesquiterpene alcohols. These materials are separated in various fractions known as: **White**** ****Camphor**** ****Oil,**** **the light fraction, contains Cineole and monoterpenes; **Brown**** ****Camphor**** ****Oil**, the medium-heavy fraction which contains up to 80% Safrole, and some terpineol; **Blue**** ****Camphor**** ****Oil**, the heavy fraction which contains sesquiterpenes, etc. of minor interest in perfumery. The white and the brown camphor oils both amount to about 20% of the crude total distillate from the wood, or each about 40% of the filter- pressed, camphor-free oil. The three oils will be discussed individually in the following monographs. Annual world production (Japan and Formosa) of crude (liquid) camphor oil is estimated at 5000 metric tons or even more (1959).