Sandalwood

Parts Usually Used

The heartwood, volatile oil

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Sandalwood is a small tree; the wood of its stem, which grows from 20-30 feet tall, is heavy and straight-grained and varies in color from white when young to yellow or orange when older. Its oval leaves are covered with a whitish bloom; its small flowers varying in color, grow in numerous cymes.

Where Found

Grows primarily in India, particularly Malabar, as well as in the Pacific and Malayan Islands.

Medicinal Properties

Alterative, aromatic, analgesic, antibacterial, antidepressant, antiseptic, antispasmodic, astringent, carminative, disinfectant, diuretic, expectorant, hemostatic, refrigerant, sedative, stimulant, stomachic, tonic

Biochemical Information

Volatile oil with at least 90% total alcohols including alpha-santalol and beta-santalol; other constituents include isovaleric aldehyde, santene, santenone, teresantol, santalone, and santalene

Legends, Myths and Stories

Since ancient times in India, Burma, and China, the aromatic sandalwood tree has played an important part in the religious rituals of Hindus and Buddhists, providing them incense, embalming ingredients, and wood for funeral pyres and temples. The Buddhists continue to use it today in their funeral rites and other religious ceremonies. Its oil is a famous and expensive ingredient in perfumes.

The age-old process of the harvesting of sandalwood is interesting, because termites play an important role in it. First the trees are cut down or uprooted, and the branches and roots are removed. The remaining tree trunks are left on the ground for several months so that termites can eat away the worthless outer layer of sapwood, exposing the fragrant heartwood, the only commercially usable part of the tree.

The burning of incense has from the earliest ages been intimately connected with the religious sentiments of man; being practiced by Pagan, Jew and Christian. In the Catholic churches, various kinds of aromatic gum-resins are used, while in Pagan temples sandalwood holds the highest rank, pieces of the wood, varying in size according to circumstances, being burned before images of their deities, and the millions of Brahmins and Buddhists, on beholding the smoke of the incense curling heavenward, presume they have performed their religious duties and that the perfume smelled by their deity will obtain forgiveness of sins.

Piesse wrote in 1857 that sandalwood grew plentifully in China, but the continued offerings of the Buddhists have almost exterminated the tree. In Chinese temples joss sticks (candles) made of sawdust of sandalwood are kept burning before their idols. The Moslems of India in all their religious ceremonies burn an incense made of sandalwood, aloe, patchouli and gum benzoin. In Hindu temples, the Du, or god, is, before the services, anointed with oil of sandalwood or the sawdust of the wood in water.

In an Indian religious fete, devotees anoint themselves with an ointment made with powdered tumeric root and grease, to go about collecting alms in return for which they distributed scented candles made with sandalwood, which are received with great veneration. No Oriental type perfume composition is considered complete unless it contains a good proportion of sandalwood oil. Its powerfully sweet and long lasting odor makes it an excellent fixative for potpourri and sachet mixtures.

Sandalwood oil is used also for making violet, cassia and similar perfumes. It was formerly much used to adulterate oil of roses. In the Far East sandalwood is used to make curious boxes, for which it is valued, as no insect can exist nor iron rust, within its influence. Sandalwood is mentioned often in Marco Polo’s 13th century narrative.

Uses

Historical herbalists attributed the plant's medicinal qualities to its oil, which was extracted from the wood using alcohol, water, or mechanical pressing, and compared its properties to those of cubeb oil. The oil was traditionally employed for bronchitis as well as for inflammation of the mucous tissues. Practitioners also prepared decoctions of the wood, which were historically administered for indigestion, gallstones, sunstroke, and fever, alongside external applications for acute dermatitis and various skin complaints.

Additionally, nineteenth- and twentieth-century sources, such as the Herbalist Almanac, recorded the practice of heating sandalwood oil to perfume and freshen the air in sickrooms.

Bibliography

American Folk Medicine , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1973 The Complete Medicinal Herbal , by Penelope Ody, Dorling Kindersley, Inc, 232 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, First American Edition, copyright 1993 Chinese Medicinal Herbs , compiled by Shih-Chen Li, Georgetown Press, San Francisco, California, 1973. The Herbalist Almanac , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1988, fifth printing, 1994 The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY.

copyright 1974. Indian Herbalogy of North America , by Alma R. , Lotus Press, PO Box 325, Twin Lakes. , Copyright 1988, published 1992 The Yoga of Herbs: An Ayurvedic Guide to Herbal Medicine , by Dr. David Frawley & Dr. Vasant Lad, Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, Wisconsin, Second edition, 1988. , 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023