Camphor

Camphor comes from Camphora officinarum, an evergreen tree of the laurel family, Lauraceae, long known as Cinnamomum camphora and called the camphor tree, camphorwood or camphor laurel. It is native to Japan, Korea, the Ryukyu Islands and Taiwan, and has been carried to southern China, the Himalayas, eastern Australia, the south-eastern United States and elsewhere; it is now a declared weed in parts of Australia and an invasive species in Florida. The tree reaches 20 to 30 metres, with glossy leaves that smell of camphor when crushed, small white flowers and black, berry-like fruit. Camphor itself is a white crystalline substance won from the wood by steaming or sublimation, and Taiwan's camphor trade was a major industry under Japanese rule. It has served as medicine, spice, insect repellent and incense, and in making celluloid and smokeless powder, and the wood keeps moths and other insects away. Kynes records camphor in Egyptian embalming, as a medieval European fumigant against plague and an amulet against evil spirits, and burned in Hindu ritual; in Japan some old camphor trees are held sacred. Cunningham gives it to chastity, health and divination: sniffed or set beside the bed to cool desire, and burned in divinatory incense. Kynes adds cleansing and banishing, and keeping the mind in the present while awakening memories of past lives.