[11] By the early 19th century most camphor tree reserves had been depleted with the remaining large stands in Japan and Taiwan, with Taiwanese production greatly exceeding Japanese.

Camphor has been used for its scent, as an embalming fluid, as topical medication, as a manufacturing chemical, and in religious ceremonies.

[19] In the 20th century, camphor was used as an analeptic by injection,[20] and to induce seizures in schizophrenic people in an attempt to treat psychosis.

[21] Camphor has limited use in veterinary medicine by intramuscular injection to treat breathing difficulties in horses.

[27] This is done by setting light to a small amount of camphor, which burns at a relatively low temperature, and using the soot rising from the flame to deposit a coating on a surface held above it.

[32] Recent studies have indicated that camphor essential oil can be used as an effective fumigant against red fire ants, as it affects the attacking, climbing, and feeding behavior of major and minor workers.

[35] The Chinese referred to the best camphor as "dragon's brain perfume", due to its "pungent and portentous aroma" and "centuries of uncertainty over its provenance and mode of origin".

[36] One of the earliest known recipes for ice cream dating to the Tang dynasty includes camphor as an ingredient.

It was used in a wide variety of both savory and sweet dishes in medieval Arabic language cookbooks, such as Kitab al-Ṭabikh compiled by ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq in the 10th century.

[40] It is a main constituent of a spice known as "edible camphor" (or kapur), which may be used in traditional South Indian desserts like Payasam and Chakkarai Pongal.

Aarti is performed after placing it on a stand and setting fire to it usually as the last step of puja or devotional worship ritual to one or more deities.

[23] In high ingested doses, camphor produces symptoms of irritability, disorientation, lethargy, muscle spasms, vomiting, abdominal cramps, convulsions, and seizures.

[46] When its use in the nascent chemical industries (discussed below) greatly increased the volume of demand in the late 19th century, potential for changes in supply and in price followed.

In 1911 Robert Kennedy Duncan, an industrial chemist and educator, related that the Imperial Japanese government had recently (1907–1908) tried to monopolize the production of natural camphor as a forest product in Asia but that the monopoly was prevented by the development of the total synthesis alternatives,[16] which began in "purely academic and wholly uncommercial"[16] form with Gustav Komppa's first report: "... but it sealed the fate of the Japanese monopoly ... For no sooner was it accomplished than it excited the attention of a new army of investigators—the industrial chemists.

"[16]: 133–134 This ongoing check on price growth was confirmed in 1942 in a monograph on DuPont's history, where William S. Dutton said, "Indispensable in the manufacture of pyroxylin plastics, natural camphor imported from Formosa and selling normally for about 50 cents a pound, reached the high price of $3.75 in 1918 [amid the global trade disruption and high explosives demand that World War I created].

Previously, some organic compounds (such as urea) had been synthesized in the laboratory as a proof of concept, but camphor was a scarce natural product with a worldwide demand.

Komppa realized this, and began industrial production of camphor in Tainionkoski, Finland, in 1907 (with plenty of competition, as Kennedy Duncan reported).

[citation needed] A different way of synthesis was developed at the same time by Dr. Karl Stephan from Chemische Fabrik auf Actien.

[48] The process was efficient enough to compete with natural camphor, and Japan was forced to lower prices in 1907, but the German company still increased its production, reaching 623 tons in 1913, only to be interrupted by WWI.