All About Sandalwood Essential Oil

By: Nancy Wellington

For over 4000 years, the Sandalwood tree has played a significant part in Eastern culture as a material for art and artifacts, a medicine, and a divine aroma. Sandalwood products are obtained from the sandalwood tree (Santalum album), which is a member of the Santalaceae family native to southern tropical Asia. It is an evergreen growing to a height of 9 meters, with leathery leaves, long slender branches, and small purple flowers. The tree also happens to be parasitic, relying on the nutrient-gathering ability of one of several other tree species for its sustenance. Due to its seemingly strict set of environmental conditions and its parasitic nature, the extremely versatile Sandalwood tree is quite difficult to propagate.

One of the more highly-prized products of Sandalwood is the essential oil it yields. Valued the world over, the oil has a very intriguing deep, rich, woody aroma, with the best qualities bringing to mind that gentle aroma of soft driftwood at the ocean's edge. The oil is in fact, one of the world's most widely used aromatics - for its scent in perfumery, for its therapeutic effects in Chinese, Ayurvedic and Tibetan medicine systems, and for its ability to center the mind in meditative yogic practice.

In the West, Sandalwood is perhaps best known in the west as a natural, woody, sweet body perfume used 'as is', or as a familiar aroma in manufactured personal items. In the East, however, Sandalwood's importance in cultural and spiritual traditions cannot be overstated. The wood is carved into furniture, religious icons, used to build temples and burned as incense in a great variety of ceremonies. The oil is used to anoint the dead, helping their transition to the next life. In Burma, women sprinkle it on passersby on the last day of the year for the release of sins. In Hindu marriages, Sandalwood is burned in a tent such that the smoke surrounds the bridal couple.

Modern aromatherapy considers the oil an effective skin care agent for dry skin, general irritation, and acne; it can help in cases of bronchitis, catarrh, dry persistent coughs, laryngitis and sore throat; it may relieve diarrhea and nausea, and can be supportive in cases of cystitis. In traditional medicine systems, the essential oil distilled from the heartwood is indicated for inflammatory conditions, such as inflamed skin, or intestinal and genitor-urinary conditions that require cooling.

Beyond the physical body, Sandalwood essential oil well known as a tonic for the hyper-active mind. In practical terms, the oil is considered an anti-depressant, relieving hot, agitated emotional states, and assisting release from over-thinking and worry. More esoterically, the aroma is considered 'divinely sweet' and softly balsamic, characteristics which evoke the grounding nature of the Earth element. It is used by yogis in the East and West to bring stillness in meditation - a serene mental state unifying consciousness of the body, mind and spirit.

Oil of the Sandalwood species has a world-renown aroma with excellent tenacity and superior fixative properties. The highest demand is now from the perfume and 'personal' item manufacturing industries. Eastern India is thought to produce the highest quality of this essential oil, though its harvest is known to be creating a strain on the area's environment. Local forestry officials have been killed over the illegal poaching of Sandalwood, and 'black-market' trading continues. The Sandalwood tree itself takes nearly 30 years to mature before yielding oil of significant value, it does not survive harvest of it's heartwood from which the oil is distilled (unlike Frankincense and Myrrh, which survive extraction of their oil-producing resins) - and the precious old-grown tree on which it grows is also lost forever. THERE IS AN ENVIRONMENTALLY SOUND ALTERNATIVE, for meeting the world's demands - an oil of the austrocaledonia species has been produced on the South Pacific island of Vanuatu from successfully cultivated trees.

This South Pacific Vanuatu species has been reviewed favorably in comparison to the East Indian Variety by the Journal of Essential Oil Research, likely having very similar therapeutic properties because of their closely related chemical profile. Because of its growing scarcity, responsible use of all Sandalwood oil is suggested - but trying a little is highly recommended - the new South Pacific (or 'Vanuatu') variety should really be sampled. It has all the wonderful properties of the Indian Mysore variety, but without the environmental impacts and the corresponding high price.

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The author is a consultant to the Ananda Apothecary, makers of pure organic essential oils and blends. More information on using oils in aromatherapy can be found through www.anandaapothecary.com

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