Also cajeput, cajaput. [Ultimately a. Malay kayu-putih i.e., kayu wood + puteh white (whence also the spec. name leucodendron). The Eng. spelling, and F. cajeput, are due to the Dutch transliteration of the Malay, kajoepoetih, and mod.L. cajuputi (with j = y). The Malay name has passed into the vernaculars of Southern India as kaya-puteh, kaya-poote, etc.]
1. Cajuput tree: one or more species of Melaleuca (N. O. Myrtaceæ), esp. M. minor (Cajuputi), and M. leucodendron, natives of the Eastern Archipelago and New Holland, and introduced in India.
1876. Harley, Mat. Med., 610. The Cajuput Tree has been distributed over the whole of India.
2. Cajuput oil: the aromatic oil obtained from these trees, used in medicine as a stimulant, anti-spasmodic and sudorific.
1832. Babbage, Econ. Manuf., xv. (ed. 3), 145. [In 1831] cajeput oil was sold … at 7d. per ounce.
a. 1845. Hood, To Mr. Malthus, vii. Doors all shut, On hinges oil’d with cajeput.
1866. Treas. Bot., 728. The leaves … are distilled for the purpose of yielding the oil known as Cajuput or Cajeput oil, which is green, and has a powerful aromatic odour.
3. Also applied to a Californian tree, Oreodaphne californica (N. O. Lauraceæ).
Hence Cajuputene, Cajputene, Chem., ‘C10H16 the hydrocarbon of which oil of cajuput is the hydrate’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
1863–72. Watts, Dict. Chem., I. 711. Cajputene is obtained, together with two isomeric hydrocarbons, isocajputene and paracajputene.
1876. Harley, Mat. Med., 611. Oil of Cajuput consists chiefly of hydrate of cajuputene.
