About Indian Sandalwood
Santalum album, commonly known as the Indian Sandalwood tree, is a member of the Santalum family, which has around 25 species of oil producing trees. Indian Sandalwood is native to the Philippines, Western Australia and Indonesia and was originally introduced to India and the Asian continent around 1300 BCE.
Santalum Album was and still is traded as a highly valuable plant, recognised worldwide for its aromatic wood and essential oil.
Over the centuries, this tree has been used in various cultures for religious, medicinal, and cosmetic purposes. However, due to its high demand and overharvesting, Santalum album has become endangered in the wild, which has prompted more interest in cultivating it sustainably.
Sandalwood Uses
The heartwood and essential oil of Santalum album are highly sought after for their unique fragrance and therapeutic properties. The essential oil, commonly extracted via steam distillation, is used in perfumes, aromatherapy, and skincare products. In times past, the tree’s heartwood carved into various items, from furniture or religious icons. However, due to overharvesting, there is a lack of suitably large specimens, meaning this is no longer possible.
Perfumes and Fragrances
Sandalwood oil is widely used in the fragrance industry for its distinctive woody, sweet aroma, which acts as a base note in many high-end perfumes. Its long-lasting scent and compatibility with other essential oils make it a staple in luxury fragrances.
Aromatherapy and Skincare
The oil is known for its calming properties, which make it a popular ingredient in aromatherapy. In skincare, it is valued for its anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties, helping treat conditions like acne, dryness, and eczema.
Traditional Medicine
In Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese medicine, sandalwood oil is used for its medicinal properties. It is believed to aid in the treatment of digestive issues, respiratory conditions, and skin ailments. Additionally, the oil has a cooling effect, making it useful for reducing fever and inflammation.
Religious Uses
Sandalwood has a significant place in Hindu and Buddhist rituals, where its paste is used in sacred ceremonies and for meditation purposes due to its believed spiritual cleansing properties. The wood is often carved into beads or icons and used in temples and altars.
Why is Indian Sandalwood oil so expensive?
Santalum album oil is one of the most expensive essential oils in the world due to its high grade and how difficult it is to grow. The fragrance that is associated with sandalwood is dictated by the percentage of santalol content. Indian sandalwood oil contains by far the most concentration at 80-90% alpha and beta santalol.
The concentration by itself is not what makes sandalwood oil so expensive, it's exacerbated by its slow growth, scarcity, and labour-intensive harvest and distillation.
Sandalwood trees only begin producing oil-producing heartwood after at least 10 years of growth, and generally optimal oil content and quality is only found in trees over 20 years old. Furthermore, sandalwood is highly susceptible to disease, pests, and extreme weather changes, requiring careful maintenance over an extended period.
Once ready for harvest, the sandalwood is either cut down or uprooted from the ground, typically uprooting is ideal as the root system contains much of the oil. The sandalwood must be stripped of the sapwood surrounding the core of the tree to get to its heartwood, following this, the wood must be dried before steam distillation. Following harvest, the host trees must be disposed of as they are too young to be of any value & the land must be rehabilitated. Almost every step of the harvest of sandalwood is an expensive and laborious endeavour.
Growing Sandalwood
Santalum album is a small, evergreen tree that typically grows between 4–9 meters in height, but can reach up to 15 meters under favourable conditions. Sandalwood is hemiparasitic which means it relies partially on other plants for nutrients. To accomplish this, its roots intertwine with that of nearby host plants to extract nutrients, unlike most parasitic relationships, this is not harmful to the host.
The hemiparasitic trait is one reason Santalum Album is particularly difficult to cultivate on a large scale, this requires the selection of a suitable host plant to grow alongside the sandalwood.
Generally, the host plant will render 50% of the land as unprofitable, as the host will not be mature enough by harvest to have any value. Furthermore, the selection of a poor host may result in stunted growth or outright death of the sandalwood.
Santalum album has specific soil and climate needs to grow optimally. It prefers tropical to subtropical climates with consistent rainfall but does not tolerate extreme fluctuations in temperature or prolonged drought. The soil needs to be well-drained, sandy-loam that is slightly acidic to neutral in PH. Although it grows best in full sunlight, it is sensitive to extreme weather changes, making it challenging to cultivate in most areas.
