Sandal Wood Santalum Album Family-Santalaceae

Ayurvedic Name: Sanskrit- Srigandha, Chandanam

Hindi: Swet chandan.

Habitat: Indiglenous to Mysore in southern part of India. If grown in other places than its natural habitat, it looses quality and quantity of its essential oil. It is a parasitic tree, bury's its roots in surrounding trees and takes nutrition.

History: From past thousands of years sandal wood has been used for medicinal purposes in India Vasnava Hindus make sandal wood paste and offer it to God every day after that put it on their fore head as a sectorial marking. In olden days kings and rich people when died were burned by the sandandal wood as it is known as a sacred wood liked by Gods. Now a days when people die and get burned few small pieces of sandalwood are put just to make the funeral sacred. Sandal wood is a part of Indian cultural heritage. Statues of Gods, various music instruments and spiritual icense have been made from them. It has a wonderful fragrance which last for years after years.

Part used for getting oil: Soft wood which is found under the bark and stem of the tree. Sources and methods of getting oil: Distillation of the soft and small size raspings or pieces of the stem.

Constituents of the oil Alcohol: Santalol and ketones, isovaleric aldehyde, santonone, santalone, esters, free acids, furfurol, sesquiterpene.

Action: Diuretic, expectorant, stimulant, bitter, cooling, sedative and astringent. Disinfectant to the mucous membrane of the genitourinary and broncial tracts. Useful for anxiety and nervous tension. It is antispasmodic and antiseptic.

Aroma of the oil: It has a deep smooth, gentle sweet and woody Aroma. It has special kind of tenacity only found in sandal wood. Its Aroma creates a meditative atmosphere. It is cooling and calming for the mind and body both.

Use in Ayurveda: • Useful in the state of anxiety, mental tension, headaches, anger negativity and depression. • To start a happy and cheerful day sandal soap has been used in bathing. In the night it refreshes the person if used in the bath. • It is believed sandal icenses has hypnotic effect on mind. It calms down the mind and relax. Best for yogies who want to meditate and get in touch with super self. It helps to achieve spiritual goals. • Sandal, Turmeric and Glycerine together makes a beautiful skin ointment which is useful in most of the skin diseases of all type of skin – oily, dry, aging skin. Good for urinary track infections, due to too much heat or due to too much drinking of alcohol, respiratory disorders, cystitis and gonorrhoea. It produce freshness in body and mind. Useful in gonorrhoea, cystitis, pimples acne, biliousness, fever and thirst. Useful in scorpion sting paste made with rose water should be applied. •It has been commonly used with sesame, coconut or other base oils to make a scented hair oil for mental coolness, as well as for migraine and other kind of headaches. •It is reputed as an aphrodisiac as it has been widely used by Indian kings in their sweet dishes specially evening cold drinks, kulfis (Indian ice cream) etc.

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