Santalum album

• Botanical Name : Santalum album L.
• Common Name : Chandan, Sukhad, Shvet-Chandan
• Plant Family : Santalaceae
• Plant Form : Tree
• Occurrence (Sectors) : 28
• Occurrence (Special Areas) : Indroda Park, Van Chetana Kendra, Aranya Van

About Santalum album Plant :

• Habit : A small evergreen glabrous tree with slender drooping branches with sap-wood white and odourless, the heart-wood yellowish brown, strongly scented.
• Leaves : Elliptic-lanceolate, subacute glabrous, entire thin, base acute, petiolate, petioles slender.
• Inflorescence :Terminal and axillary paniculate cymes.
• Flowers : Brownish-purple, inodorous, perianth campanulate, limb of 4 valvet triangular-segments, stamens 4, exserted, alternating with 4 rounded obtuse scales.
• Fruit : Drupes globose, purple-black, endocarp hard ribbed.
• Flowering and Fruiting Time : March - August
• Significance :
  • Wood ground up with water into a paste, is applied to local inflammations, to temples in fever, in skin diseases, to allay heat and pruritus.
  • It acts as diaphoretic.
  • In cases of morbid thirst wood-powder is taken in coconut water.
  • A bolus of ground sandal cheeks-hoemoptysis in mild form.
  • Essential oil from wood is used in perfumery and is a remedy as demulnent, diuretic and mild stimulant in gonorrhea and chronic cystitis.
  • Oil from the seeds is used in skin diseases.