spanner
Harmless
Posts: 22
Registered: 5-7-2006
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Camphor Trees
In trying to extract brown camphor oil what age should the tree be before harvesting plus is there an easy way to determinr the age of the tree by
looking at the tree
|
|
|
not_important
International Hazard
Posts: 3873
Registered: 21-7-2006
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
As the oil comes from the sapwood, you want the tree to be large enough to provide you with a goodly amount of the living wood - size more than age.
Trees often have branches harvested, so the tree itself continues growing.
As you appear to be from an English speaking country, if you're not in India then it is likely that camphor is considered a pest in your region; the
trees are often cut and chipped for disposal.
|
|
|
spanner
Harmless
Posts: 22
Registered: 5-7-2006
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
thanks for that , that was very helpfull, yes they are a pest here and are regularly cut down, Can you tell me how long the wood chips can be stored
before they become usueless for yeilding oil. I ask this because there are a number of companies that remove these trees and chip them for mulch and
it would be good to know with regards to getting my hands on them
|
|
|
phase_dancer
Harmless
Posts: 15
Registered: 30-6-2003
Location: Australia
Member Is Offline
Mood: Happy
|
|
An important point with C. Camphora - at least in Australia - is that levels of the alkene (major constituent of brown camphor oil) vary considerably
between tree to tree, and between the 2 identified chemotypes.
If you are located in Australia, you might want to check out work by Stubbs et al. It was found that along the East Coast of Aus, C Camphora
exists as two distinct chemotypes. One contains higher levels of cineole and the other contains more camphor and less cineole. Levels of the allyl
benzene are generally much higher with the camphor type than with the cineole variety, but also vary widely from tree to tree. Highest levels were
found in the inner trunk wood oil (1.1%-55.4%, av 16.28% n=9) and root bark oil (
2.8%-23.3%, av 10.6% n =10)
Stubbs also notes that these two subspecies are visually indistinguishable, although the camphor variety is more prevalent. From a University project
done some years ago, higher content safrole trees were typically between 20-30 years old and grew in relatively dry ground on hilltops or ridges.
Ref: The Essential Oil of Cinnamomum camphora (L.) Nees and Eberm.-Variation in Oil Composition Throughout the Tree in Two Chemotypes from Eastern
Australia, by Brett J Stubbs, Alison Specht, & Don Brushett J. Essential Oils Research 16, 200-205 (May/ June 2004)*
*Please note online versions of this paper do not contain tables listing amounts of the major constituents in oils as obtained from various
parts of the trees. For this you will need to obtain the origninal paper.
|
|
|
Mr_Benito_Mussolini
Harmless
Posts: 47
Registered: 19-7-2006
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
I suspect that the alkene is not of interest in this case.
|
|
|
not_important
International Hazard
Posts: 3873
Registered: 21-7-2006
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
phase_dancer, nice information, thanks.
I would expect that how long the chips can sit will depend on the size of the chips and under what conditions they are stored under. In other words,
hard to tell. But they should be pretty cheap if they are being used for mulch, I would say just go ahead and buy some, then take good notes on what
you do and how much oil you get.
|
|
|
spanner
Harmless
Posts: 22
Registered: 5-7-2006
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
yeah thanks guys that was really helpfull but shit where do you find this information im new to chemistry ( my field is more engineering so those of
you who ever need idears for equipment give me a bell) and cant find this sort of info, even been to the state library and universty librarys but im
obviously looking in the wrong places, but again thank you so very much.
|
|
|
phase_dancer
Harmless
Posts: 15
Registered: 30-6-2003
Location: Australia
Member Is Offline
Mood: Happy
|
|
A great source of info on C. Camphora, it's constituents and traditional distillation methods is found in "Essential Oils" vol 4 by E. Guenther under
Essential Oils of the plant family Lauraceae. Most good Uni libraries will have it.
|
|
|
spanner
Harmless
Posts: 22
Registered: 5-7-2006
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
thanks "phase" will check it out after uni starts up again
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xpblue/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
