Relating to or containing camphor, the waxy substance from camphor laurel trees used in medicines and mothballs.
From camphor (from Arabic kafur, via Sanskrit) plus the suffix -olic, meaning 'relating to or containing.' This medical term emerged in 19th-century pharmaceutical terminology to describe substances with camphor's properties.
Camphor has been used in traditional Asian medicine for over 2,000 years, and when scientists started analyzing its chemical properties, they invented 'campholic' to describe its unique effects on the nervous system—it's one of the few plant compounds that can both stimulate and depress nerve activity.
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