SANTALUM ALBUM LINN

Common Name : Chandan / Sandalwood
Plant Parts Used : Wood and Volatile oil

Description of Santalum Album :
It is a small evergreen tree with slender drooping branches, the sapwood is white and odourless, the heartwood yellowish brown and strongly scented. Leaves elliptic lanceolate, sub-acute petioles 1-1.3 cm long slender, flowers brownish red, inodourous, in terminal and axillary cymes shorter than leaves. The fruit is a drupe.

Characteristics and Constituents :
Heartwood contains a volatile oil 2.5 to 6%, a dark resin and tannic acid. The constituents of the oil are santalol which is the principal constituent present to 90% or more. It is a mixture of two isomers known as ?-santalol and, ?-santalol (alpha-santalol and beta- santalol). The other components are aldehydes and ketones, such as isovaleric aldehyde, santonone, santalone, esters, free acids etc. Alpha- santalol and beta-santalol account for most of the odour of sandalwood oil.

Seeds yield 50 to 55% of a dark red viscid fixed oil containing stearolic acid and santalbic acid.

Actions and Uses :
The wood ground up with water into paste is commonly applied to local inflammations, to the temples in fevers, and in skin diseases, to allay heat and pruritus. It also acts as a daphoretie. In case of morbid thirst the powder of the wood is recommended to he drunk in coconut water. It is popularly used to treat urethral haemorrhage and kidney afflictions. Externally the oil is an excellent application in scabies in every stage and form.
The oil is irritating to mouse and rabbit skin. However, it has been approved for edible use. Santalol can cause dermatitis in sensitive individuals.