Taiwan Tekho Camphor Co. Ltd.

TEKHO group was established by Mr. S. H. TENG in Chung-Ho City, Taipei, Taiwan under the name "TEKHO CHEMICALS CO." The company's initial focus was the production of "SHEN LUNG BRAND" "Natural Borneol" and the supply of Chinese medicine.

In 1968, the state-owned enterprise, "TAIWAN CAMPHOR BUREAU," was shut down and declared to allow for private ownership. TEKHO took over the installations, made improvements, and began mass production of "Natural Camphor." In 1969, TEKHO CHEMICALS expanded the factory scale by merging facilities from Chi-Mei Company and renamed the company "TEKHO CAMPHOR CO. LTD." It became the first company to manufacture camphor products. TEKHO extended its product line to include not only Borneol but also Camphor Tablet, White Camphor Oil, Sassafras Oil, Ho Oil, Yellow Camphor Oil, and Terpinen-4-ol. The products were exported worldwide to Europe, the US, Japan, and other countries.

In 1970, TEKHO upgraded its Borneol facility to produce "Natural Borneol Special" and imported Synthetic Camphor from Germany to produce "Synthetic Borneol." In 1976, TEKHO developed "Camphor Sulfonic Acid," which became the major exportation product, replacing Natural Camphor. TEKHO expanded the factory size to accommodate the new Sulfonic Acid facility.

In 1982, TEKHO introduced a new product, "Camphoric Acid," used as an intermediate material in the pharmaceutical market, which brought the company to global markets. Later, related products like Camphoric Anhydride were developed too. In 1991, TEKHO invested a huge amount of capital to found a new company, "Taiwan Fine Chemicals Co. Ltd," in Taoyuan County, Taiwan, devoted to producing aromatic products such as Eucalyptol, Natural Linalool, Terpinen-4-ol Natural, Nerolidol, and Safrol, etc.

Due to the demand in EUROPE, TEKHO developed L-N-BORNEOL for FLAVOR and FRAGRANCE industries in 1995. In 2001, TEKHO responded to the trend of NATURAL RESOURCES and supplied D-N-BORNEOL PURE NATURAL for BIOCHEMICAL industries by partnering with tree-planting partners. TEKHO became able to supply the most wide range of BORNEOL PRODUCTS in the whole world.

Oil of camphor is the most important essential oil in terms of total production per year, outranking even oils of eucalyptus and citronella. Although synthetic camphor production has caused a decline in the natural product's importance, oil of camphor retains its position due to other valuable components that can be converted into valuable aromatic isolates and synthetic aromatics. Prior to World War II, the island of Formosa was the world's most important producer of camphor oil and camphor, forming part of the Japanese empire, and its camphor industry was completely controlled by, and connected with, the chemical industry of Japan proper. In 1852, British companies in Formosa made lucrative profits by exporting camphor. The Japanese, Formosan, and Chinese camphor and camphor oil industries survived competition from the synthetic camphor industry by exploiting valuable by-products.