Name - कर्पूरः

Botanical name - Cinnamomum camphora

Description - Medium-sized tree. Leaves leathery, shining, aromatic. Fruit dark brown, ovoid.

Chemical Constituents- Two alkaloids - laurolitsline (norboldine) and reticuline are present in roots. Leaf oil and twigs contain sesquiterpenoids. Methylvinylketone, methylisobutylketone, mesityloxide, camphene, etc., isolated from essential oil of leaves. Leaves contain lignans kusunokinin, cinnamonol and kusunokinol. Heart-wood contains kusunokinin. Essential oil yields sesquiterpenoids carvacrol, cresol, eugenol, camphorenone and camphorenol. Seeds contain fatty oil.

Use - Plant possess stimulant, diaphoretic, anthelmintic, antiseptic and anodyne properties. It is extensively employed in external applications as a counter irritant in muscular sprains, inflammations and rheumatic conditions. Camphor is esteemed as an anoleptic in cardiac depressions and used in myocarditis. It has a calmative influence in hysteria and nervousness----Camphor is obtained by distillation of wood and leaves. Camphor is used chiefly for local application on sprains, inflammations and rheumatic pains. It is also given internally in certain types of diarrhoea or as cardiac stimulant. Camphor is used in many other ways and more than 5000 quintals of camphor is imported into India each year. (Camphor is now being obtained also from certain species of Ocimun the genus of the well-known Tulsi plant.)