The physiological action of borneol : a contribution to the pharmacology of the camphor group / by Ralph Stockman.

Date:
[1888?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physiological action of borneol : a contribution to the pharmacology of the camphor group / by Ralph Stockman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    THE PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION OF BORNEOL. A CON- TRIBUTION TO THE PHARMACOLOGY OF THE CAMPHOR GROUP. By KALPH STOCKMAN, M.D., Assistant to the Professor of Materia Medica, Edinburgh University, Research Scholar of Brit. Med. Assoc. (From the Pharmacological Laboratory of the University of Edinburgh.) In the following research the pharmacological action of three different substances has been fully investigated, namely, Borneo Camphor, Ngai Camphor, and Borneol prepared artificially from oil of turpentine. In addition, a number of experiments has been made with ordinary or laurel camphor, and with menthol or peppermint camphor. The first three bodies are known to chemists under the common name of borneol, but although they are identical in chemical composi- tion and reactions, they differ considerably in outward appearance and in certain physical properties. It will be of interest therefore to give a short account of each. Borneo (Sumatra, Malay, Baros) camphor is obtained in small quantity from the trunk of the Dryobalanops Camphora (Colebrooke), a large forest tree growing in Sumatra and Borneo. After the tree has been felled the camphor is picked out by hand. The finest quality is in large, flat, white crystals, and the inferior qualities in granules. It melts at 198° C. and boils at 212° C, subliming unchanged. It is slightly heavier than water, therein differing from laurel camphor, and its alcoholic solution rotates the plane of polarized light to the right. It has the formula C10 H18 0, and is to be regarded as a mona- tomic alcohol of which common camphor (C10HlcO) is the aldehyde. By appropriate means laurel camphor may be converted into borneol, or vice versa. According to Fluckiger it was known in China before laurel camphor, and was the variety originally introduced into Europe. Since the discovery of the other, however, very little Borneo camphor has been sent to the West owing to the high price which it commands in t 00 shilling's per lb. or more for the best quality. R5 03-^