COMMERCIAL USES OF CAMPHOR, BORNEOL, AND CINEOL.

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.