As an article of commerce camphor is most useful, being employed
extensively in the arts and in medicine. Its use in the arts is
restricted principally to the manufacture of celluloid, a commodity
which finds a great variety of uses. It also finds important uses
in the manufacture of lacquers and pyrotechnics, in embalming, and,
because of its odor, is used as an insectifuge. Camphor is also used to
a great extent in medicine both for external and internal application,
and enters into many pharmaceutical preparations.
Borneol, although closely allied to camphor, is much less used
commercially in the United States, principally because of the
difficulties encountered in its collection by the natives in Borneo
and the Malay Archipelago. It would probably be used more extensively
in this country if a sufficient supply could be obtained at reasonable
prices, the high price of the article preventing its use for technical
purposes.
Borneol is antiseptic and stimulant, and finds its main use in
medicine, but is also in demand in the perfume industry, the esters
being especially desirable. The acetic acid ester of borneol (bornyl
acetate) is in fact the odoriferous principle of pine-needle odor.
Borneol is used mainly as a base for the manufacture of bornyl
acetate which is much used in the preparation of pine-needle odors by
perfumers. It is in considerable demand in the Orient where, according
to Janse,[24] it is sought by the Chinese, who use it principally in
religious ceremonies, but also in medicine and the perfuming of India
inks. The Chinese are said to pay as much as $1.25 an ounce for it, and
since the native producers are unable to supply the demand, a synthetic
borneol, which is not a pure substance but a mixture of borneol and
isoborneol, has entered the markets of the East.
Cineol, or eucalyptol, is a very important and valuable article of
commerce. Its virtue as a remedial agent has placed it in a high
position among the important drugs used in the treatment of human
ailments. The uses of cineol are entirely medicinal. It is used both
internally and externally, and also as an inhalant. It is administered
internally in the form of various pharmaceutical preparations for
the treatment of colds, pneumonia, bronchitis, and other respiratory
affections. As an inhalant it is used for asthma, diphtheria, and
throat troubles in general. Together with other medicaments cineol is
applied externally in the form of ointments or liniments. Furthermore,
it has a wide application in the manufacture of dentifrices, mouth
washes, and other preparations where an antiseptic action is desired.
At the present time pure cineol, as prepared from eucalyptus oil,
commands a price of $1 to $2 a pound.
PURPOSE OF THE INVESTIGATION OF WILD AROMATIC PLANTS NATIVE TO THE
UNITED STATES.
Since many valuable volatile oils and volatile-oil constituents have
been discovered in plants growing wild in various parts of the world,
it has been thought that an investigation of the wild aromatic plants
of this country would reveal many, now practically useless and possibly
classed as weeds, which might become of commercial value.
The economic value of these plants is determined not only by the
proportion of oil which they contain, but by the constituents of the
oil; hence careful analyses must be made in order to discover what
these constituents may be. The present bulletin deals with the analyses
of three heretofore unutilized plants, which may be grouped together,
because the oils obtained from them are all of a camphoraceous
character and because they contain several constituents in common.
These, gathered from different sections of the United States from
entirely different habitats and belonging to unrelated families, are
as follows: Black sage (_Ramona stachyoides_) from California, wild
sage (_Artemisia frigida_) from South Dakota, and swamp bay (_Persea
pubescens_) from Florida.