The genus Cinnamomum

Camphor Tree 231
Table 9.14 Yield and composition of oil in relation to harvesting time from 2-, 4- and 20-year old plants
Date of Percentage Composition of essential oil
collection of yield
(2) (4) (20) (2) (4) (20)
15th Dec. 2.77 3.25 2.94 -pinene and Low percentage Maximum cineole,
cineole of -pinene, low % of -pinine,
maximum, low -pinene, cineole, -pinene camphor
camphor, good limonene, good % and borneol
borneol of camphor, borneolacetate
and borneol
1st Feb. 1.49 2.94 1.85 Good % of Maximum % of Maximum borneol,
camphor other isoborneol acetate small % of other
components in good % of camphor components
low quantity
15th March 2.72 2.87 2.79 Limonene, -Pinene cineole Iso-Borneol
iso-borneol iso-borneol acetate maximum, good%
acetate and and less camphor -pinene
camphor
1st May 2.98 3.57 2.63 Maximum % Very good yield Limonene
of camphor of camphor maximum
15th June 2.67 3.57 2.53 Iso-borneol Camphor yield -pinene,
maximum good iso-borneol acetate
1st Aug. 4.34 4.94 2.71 Pinene Maximum % of Good % of safrole
maximum camphor
good amount
of camphor
15th Sep. 3.16 4.97 2.71 Pinene, bornyl Limonene, bornyl- Safrole – pinene
acetate good % acetate maximum, maximum
of camphor good % of – pinene,
-pinene and camphor
1st Nov. 3.18 4.28 2.54 Good yield Good yield of Limonene – pinine,
of – pinine, pinine, -pinene -pinene, borneol,
limonene, camphor, and safrole good %
camphor, borneol-acetate,
bornyl-acetate iso-borneol
and borneol acetate and borneol
Source: Bhandari, 1995.
at breast height in cm, and H height of the tree). Singh and Negi (1997) thus
calculated the standing biomass based on stem DBH.
The bole contributes considerably (62.9%) to the biomass, followed by twig
branch (27.5%), bark (6.1%), leaf (3.4%) and fruit (0.06%), respectively. Satoo (1986)
estimated that in a 46-year old camphor tree stand the total biomass was around 196.1
t/ha from a plantation that contained 1250 trees/ha. Here bole bark contributed
80%, branch twig 17.8% and leaves 2% (Table 9.15).
Chopra et al. (1958) reported camphor and camphor oil content from trees growing
in three agroecologically different locations in India (Table 9.16, 9.17). They also
reported 55.66% camphor content in leaf oil of trees growing in Calcutta and 80.13%
of camphor content in oil from trees growing in Dehra Dun. The physico-chemical
properties of oil from different plant parts are given in Table 9.18 (Gulati, 1982).