Medicinal Herbs

Ngai Camphor Extract

Blumea balsamifera

Ngai camphor (Blumea balsamifera) is a shrub of one and a half to two and a half metres, its stems grooved lengthways and thickly hairy, branching near the top. The leaves are oval, pointed at both ends and hairy above, the margins toothed and often cut into small lobes near the base. Crushed, they give off the scent of borneol, the chief leaf-oil component with camphor and cineole. The plant grows wild all over Vietnam, from the mountains to the delta, on open cleared slopes rather than deep forest. Buds and young leaves carry the most borneol, and the distilling is done in autumn and winter.