Sandalwood Essential Oil, MYSORE SANDALWOOD OIL

Introduction: Sandalwood oil is perhaps best known in the west as a sweet, warm,
rich and woody essential oil used as is for a body fragrance, and as an ingredient in
fragrant products such as incense, perfumes, aftershaves and other cosmetics. But
the story of sandalwood, the divine essence, goes much further. Sandalwood has
been a part of the religious and spiritual traditions of India since prehistory and has
been effectively used in traditional medicine for thousands of years.

Sandalwood oil is in high demand today and the resource is dwindling. This has lead
to several unfavorable results: 1) sandalwood oil is one of the most-often
adulterated essential oils; 2) the cost of sandalwood oil is rising dramatically (about
25% per year); 3) due to the value of sandalwood oil, the trees are being illegally
cut, leading to the waste of this precious resource as trees that are too young are
cut, or trees are cut but the roots are left to rot (the roots are the most valuable part
of the tree from which to extract the oil). Additionally, this illegal poaching has lead
to several murders of forestry officials and other crimes indicative of the black
market; 4) the resource is becoming scarce. The current production of sandalwood
trees is not enough to meet the demand of consumers. The trees are difficult to
propagate and must grow for at least 30 years to become suitable for harvesting.
The forestry departments in India are regulating the amount of material that is cut
and sold, but there are many demands for other use of the land for example,
cattle grazing, the need for wood to keep people employed, etc.

The situation regarding sandalwood trees is getting worse and this divine wood and
the oil from it are becoming more and more precious. In the west, we need to look
for ways to responsively use this resource and to reduce our dependence on it. We
should be looking for substitute oils, using less in our formulas, and regarding
sandalwood oil as something very rare to be used on special occasions.

The Sandalwood Tree: Sandalwood products are obtained from the sandalwood tree
(Santalum album), which is a member of the Santalaceae family. It is known as
white sandalwood, Mysore sandalwood, East Indian sandalwood, sandal, Chandan
(Hindi), and tan xiang (Mandarin). The white sandalwood is an evergreen tree which
grows to 50 feet and naturally occurs in Eastern India in the states of Mysore,
Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnatika. It grows in dry and rocky environments and
reproduces by suckers and by seeds. The environmental conditions required by this
tree are rather strict and not completely understood. Due to a combination of the
environmental requirements and the necessity of living off a host plant, Sandalwood
is not easy to propagate. Even so, it has long been cultivated in other Southeast
Asian locations, including Indonesia where some good quality Sandalwood essential
oil is produced.

Sandalwood is a parasitic tree and obtains nutrients from several other plant
species. While there are other species of sandalwood, including red sandalwood,
Australian sandalwood (S. spicatum) and New Caledonian Sandalwood (S.
austrocaledonicum), these are quite different from true Santalum album and have
very different properties and fragrances. There is another tree that yields an
essential oil which is sometimes called West Indian sandalwood or amyris (Amyris
balsamifera) it is from Haiti and other islands in the West Indies and is not related
to true sandalwood. It is, however, sometimes used as a sandalwood substitute,
especially in products such as sandalwood soap, where using the true sandalwood
would be too expensive.

Extraction Methods: The heartwood is the most precious part of the Sandalwood
tree, and the best heartwood comes from the roots. Sapwood yields a lower quality
oil. Older trees have more heartwood, and so are more highly prized. For each
extraction method, the quality of the final sandalwood oil will depend upon the
quality of the wood, the length of distillation time, and the experience of the
distiller. These days, Sandalwood essential oil is extracted primarily by steam
distillation, a process in which super heated steam is passed through the powdered
wood. The steam helps to release and carry away the essential oil that is locked in
the cellular structure of the wood. The steam is then cooled and the result is
sandalwood hydrosol and sandalwood essential oil.

Hydro-distillation is the traditional method of extraction. It is fairly rare these days,

yet it is said that this method yields an oil with a superior aroma. Instead of having
steam pass through the powdered wood, in a hydro-distiller the powder is allowed to
soak in water. A fire from below the vessel heats the water and carries off the steam
which is allowed to cool. The Sandalwood oil is then removed from the top of the
hydrosol.

Adulteration of Sandalwood Oil: Sandalwood oil is one of the most-often adulterated

of oils. This is due to the high demand, the high price and the scarcity of the real
product. Adulteration comes in many forms in the field of essential oils, such as
dilution of a genuine essential oil with a cheap carrier oil or solvent, adding
synthetic aroma chemicals to an essential oil, or reconstructing an oil with aroma
chemicals (natural or synthetic). Dilution of an oil can be easily performed at any
time by almost anyone from the distiller to the consumer. Adulteration and
reconstruction of essential oils, however, is often done in the labs of the essential oil
brokers. Some adulterations are easy to detect; on the other hand, adulteration
performed by an expert with the right materials can be very difficult to detect.

Aromatherapy Use: Sandalwood oil has a long history of use as a traditional

medicine. It is part of traditional medical systems such as Chinese medicine and the

Indian healing science known as Ayurveda. It has been used in a wide variety of
applications such as genital and urinary infections, digestive complaints, dry
coughs, persistent coughs, throat irritations, laryngitis, nervous disorders,
depression and anxiety. Sandalwood is used widely and effectively in skin care,
being useful for dry, cracked and chapped skin, rashes and acne. It is suitable for all
skin types and is non toxic.

Use in Perfumery: Sandalwood oil is used extensively in natural perfumery as a

harmonizing agent, base note and fixative. It helps to bring together other oils and
adds a graceful aroma without taking away or overpowering other oils. It is a base
note that helps to hold the scent of other lighter oils that tend to dissipate quickly.
Sandalwood is central to the making of traditional attars in India. These natural
perfumes are made by distilling essential oils of rare and/or difficult to distill plants
into pure Sandalwood oil. This method of distilling unique oils into Sandalwood oil
produces wonderful natural perfumes containing the essences of both plants
combined in an almost magical way.

Spiritual Use: Sandalwood is used in many different ways in the spiritual traditions
of the East. It is considered beneficial for meditation and for calming and focusing
the mind. It is used as incense in temples or on personal altars to remind us of the
fragrant realms of the heavenly realms. Deities of various kinds are fashioned from
Sandalwood, then installed in a shrine or temple or placed upon the home altar.
When Sandalwood was more abundant, the wood was used to construct parts of
temples. Meditation beads or malas are made with Sandalwood in which a mantra
or a personal prayer is repeated as the beads roll through the fingers. Sandalwood
paste is used in many rituals including fire ceremonies, and Sandalwood paste is
also used to anoint the forehead as a blessing, as well as to make a design symbolic
to particular religious sects.

The oil of Sandalwood is used to anoint deities. In this way the fragrance which is
emitted over time also helps to remind one of the spiritual realms. Sandalwood oil is
one of the best fragrant aids to meditation. A drop or two can be applied to the
forehead, the temples or rubbed between the eyebrows before beginning. In this
way, it helps to set the stage and prepare the mind to begin its inward journey.

Which Sandalwood Oil Should I Buy? As in all of life, buy the Sandalwood oil that you
prefer. If you do not require pure and natural oils, are using the oil for its fragrance
(versus for its healing qualities), and you like the aroma of an oil that has synthetic
Sandalwood in it, buy it. The best way to conserve Sandalwood trees is to stop using
true Sandalwood oil. Again, if you are using Sandalwood oil for its fragrance, but
prefer a natural product, it may be fine if the oil has been diluted in a carrier oil
such as jojoba oil. Alternatively, you can try New Caledonian or Australian

Sandalwood or West Indian Sandalwood (Amyris). Each of these should be labeled

correctly and should be lower in price than a pure (true) Sandalwood oil. While most
people assume that the Mysore Sandalwood is the best quality, it is not necessarily
so. Some Mysore oils are weak (and likely diluted), and some Sandalwood from
other states in India or from Indonesia are very fine indeed! Our suggestion is to try
out several oils for yourself. If you are purchasing over the internet, buy Sandalwood
oil samples first and compare.

Sandalwood oil is rare and expensive and the price is going up rapidly as the Indian
government places tighter regulations on its production and export. If you find a
Sandalwood that you truly like, buy enough to last you, and then use it sparingly.
The oil will improve with age (unlike some other essential oils which degrade with
age), and you will likely never be able to replace it. If you are using Sandalwood oil
in making formulas, we suggest that you try the Sandalwood CO2 extract as it does
make a better use of the resource by efficiently extracting the Sandalwood oil, as
well as allowing you to use less of this precious essence.

Sources of Information
Eden Botanicals is grateful to the following sources which were used in preparing
this web page. Please refer to these sources for more information on Sandalwood
Essential Oil.

Holmes, Peter. 2001 Clinical Aromatherapy - Essays and Essential Oil Profiles. Snow
Lotus Press, Boulder Co.

Keville, Kathy & Mindy Green. 1995. Aromatherapy - A Complete Guide to the
Healing Arts, The Crossing Press, Freedom, CA.

Lawless, Julia. 1995. Essential Oils - The Complete Guide to the Use of Oils in
Aromatherapy and Herbalism. Element Books, Boston, MA.

McMahon, Christopher. Fall/Winter 2000. Sacred Sandalwood - The Divine Tree, in

Aromatic Thymes.

McMahon, Christopher. 2002, 2003. personal communication.

Schnaubelt, Kurt. 1998. Advanced Aromatherapy, Healing Arts Press, Rochester,

Vermont.