A simple chemical vapor deposition technique at atmospheric pressure (APCVD) is adopted to synthesize the aligned arrays of functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (AMWCNTs) without using any carrier gas, at 230oC, 750oC and 850oC. Camphor (C10H16O) is used as carbon source because this botanical hydrocarbon is chip and abundant which convert the CVD technique to a green method for production of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The oxygen atoms in camphor oxidize the amorphous carbons and create hydroxyl functional groups in AMWCNTs. The molecular structure of camphor lead to form hexagonal and pentagonal carbon rings which increase the growth rate and alignment of MWCNTs. In this work, AMWCNTs are grown on silicon substrate, copper, and quartz. The synthesized AMWCNTs are characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The SEM results show that the deposited CNTs are formed in vertical aligned arrays and each has a functional OH group which IS seen in FTIR spectroscopy results.

According to Iran's folk medicine, camphor, a crystalline ketone obtained from essential oils of Cinnamomum camphora, has both sexual behavior attenuating and enhancing properties. This study examined the effects of camphor on sexual behavior in male rats. Twenty four sexually mature male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 4 groups receiving daily i.p. injections of olive oil as vehicle (2.5 ml/kg) or camphor at 2.5, 12.5 or 50 mg/kg for 7 days. Afterwards, mount latency (ML), mount frequency (MF), intromission latency (IL) and intromission frequency (IF) of male rats in the presence of sexually receptive females rats were recorded. There was no significant difference in MF or IF from control and experimental groups. However, at the 50 mg/kg dose, camphor reduced the ML and IL relative to that of control rats. The finding indicates that at this dose, camphor had sexual desire and sexual performance enhancing properties.

Purpose: In Iranian traditional medicine there is a belief that camphor is a suppressor of sexual activity. Based on this idea and since there are few studies on this issue, we evaluated the effect of camphor on histopathological changes of reproductive system in young male mice of balb/c racial type.Materials and Methods: Thirty-six premature male balb/c mice, were divided into 3 paired groups of experimental, control, and sham (n = 6). Experimental groups 1 and 2 received 30 mg/kg camphor dissolved in olive oil (orally) for 10 and 20 days, respectively. The control groups received the same volume of olive oil during the same periods of time, and no intervention was done in sham groups. All groups were kept in the same environmental condition. At the end of exposure time, each group was anesthetized and their testes were removed for obtaining serial sections, and histological staining.Results: Comparing to the control groups less vascularization in testis tissue of experimental groups was seen. Furthermore, using stereological methods demonstrated that internal diameters of seminiferous tubules in experimental groups were significantly smaller than those in control groups (P <0.005). Also, the number of released sexual cells was lower in experimental groups (P <0.005). No meaningful difference was seen between controls and sham groups. Conclusion: Administration of camphor and its effects on male mice reproductive system may result in significant structural changes, including vascularization and proliferation of sexual cells. This can affect maturation of seminiferous tubules and subsequently, reproductive function of testes in mice.

In this work, the first synthesis, characterization and catalytic performance of Fe3O4/camphor core/shell nanospheres as a magnetic composite nanocatalyst were reported. The characterization was carried out by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, vibrating sample magnetometer, N2 adsorption–desorption by Brunauer–Emmett–Teller and inductively coupled plasma analyses. The recoverable heterogeneous nanostructure catalyst was simply prepared and effectively employed in the one-pot multicomponent synthesis of b-amino carbonyl compounds in ethanol as a green solvent at room temperature. Further advantages of this new protocol are short reaction times, high yields, easy workup procedure, inexpensive and eco-friendly protocol and magnetically recoverability and several times reusability of the nanocatalyst without significant decrease in catalytic activity.