Sandalwood oil

A glass vial containing pure Sandalwood Essential Oil

Sandalwood oil is an essential oil obtained from the steam distillation of chips and billets cut from the heartwood of various species of sandalwood trees (e.g. Santalum album^[1] and Santalum spicatum).^[2]

Sandalwood oil is used in perfumes, cosmetics, sacred unguents, and as a mild food flavoring.^[1]

Main constituents

Sandalwood oil contains more than 90% sesquiterpenic alcohols of which 50-60% is the tricyclic α-santalol. β-Santalol comprises 20-25%.^[2]^[3]

The composition of the oil will depend on the species, region grown, age of tree,^[2] and possibly the season of harvest and details of the extraction process used.

Current ISO standards for S. album oil, are 41-55 % α-santalol and 16-24 % β–santalol (ISO 3518: 2002E).^[4]

Traditional uses

Due to its highly coveted fragrance, the essential oil produced from Sandalwood is often used in aromatherapy and is added to soaps and cosmetics. It is also used in Ayurvedic medicine for the treatment of both somatic and mental disorders, including common colds, bronchitis, fever, urinary tract infections, and inflammation.^[5] A study investigating the effects of inhalation of East Indian sandalwood oil and its main compound, α-santalol, on human physiological parameters found that the compounds elevated pulse rate, skin conductance, and systolic blood pressure.^[5] There is also religious significance associated with sandalwood oil and it is used in many different religions around the world, including Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism.

Production

The oil is distilled from the wood of the entire tree including stump and roots. (See also Sandalwood#Production, Sandalwood#Distillation)

Fragrance

Sandalwood oil is used extensively for its woody-floral scent. It pairs well with other wood or floral scents such as violet, rose, tuberose, clove, and oakmoss.^[6] But since the wood is so rare and expensive, cosmetic companies are now trying to find synthetic substitutes to try to imitate the structure and scent of sandalwood. There are several synthetic odorants with odor similar to sandalwood oil, used as lower-cost alternatives for perfumes, emollients, and skin cleaning agents. Two of these, Sandalore and Brahmanol, have been found to be agonists of the cutaneous olfactory receptor OR2AT4, with potential therapeutic benefits for wound healing. Natural sandalwood oil, and other synthetic sandalwood odorants, did not have the same effect.^[7]^[8]

Safety

There hasn't been extensive research conducted on the safety of sandalwood oil. But because there haven't been any significant adverse effects documented in scientific literature, it continues to be used cosmetically and in food. A few studies were found to identify sandalwood oil's potential toxic effects, but it was determined to be safe at the present levels that the oil is used in food as flavorings. In a few different patch tests, undiluted sandalwood oil was found to be slightly irritating in mice and rabbits, but not in humans. ^[6]

References

1 2 Kapoor LD (2001). Handbook of Ayurvedic Medicinal Plants. Herbal Reference Library Series. 2. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. ISBN 9780849329296.
1 2 3 Sandalwood Essential Oil, http://scienceofacne.com/sandalwood-essential-oil/ Has references.
↑ Krotz A, Helmchen G (1994). "Total Syntheses, Optical Rotations and Fragrance Properties of Sandalwood Constituents: (−)-(Z)- and (−)-(E)-β-Santalol and Their Enantiomers, ent-β-Santalene". Liebigs Ann Chem. 1994 (6): 601–609. doi:10.1002/jlac.199419940610.
↑ Preliminary oil results from a 14-year-old Indian Sandalwood (Santalum album) plantation at Kununurra, WA
1 2 Heuberger, E; Hongratanaworakit, T; Buchbauer, G (2006). "East Indian Sandalwood and alpha-santalol odor increase physiological and self-rated arousal in humans". Planta Medica. 72 (9): 792–800. PMID 16783696. doi:10.1055/s-2006-941544.
1 2 Burdock, George A; Carabin, Ioana G (Summer 2007). "Safety assessment of sandalwood oil". Food and Chemical Toxicology. 46: 421–432.
↑ A Synthetic Sandalwood Odorant Induces Wound-Healing Processes in Human Keratinocytes via the Olfactory Receptor OR2AT4, Daniela Busse1, Philipp Kudella1, Nana-Maria Grüning, Günter Gisselmann1, Sonja Ständer, Thomas Luger, Frank Jacobsen, Lars Steinsträßer, Ralf Paus, Paraskevi Gkogkolou, Markus Böhm, Hanns Hatt and Heike Benecke, Journal of Investigative Dermatology (2014) 134, 2823–2832; doi:10.1038/jid.2014.273; published online 7 August 2014
↑ New Scientist magazine,Skin’s ability to ‘smell’ seems to help it heal itself, 8 July 2014

Wood products
Lumber/ timber	Batten Beam Bressummer Cruck Flitch beam Flooring Joist Lath Molding Panelling Plank Plate Post Purlin Rafter Railroad ties Reclaimed Shingle Siding Sill Stud Timber truss Treenail Truss Utility pole
Engineered wood	Glued laminated timber veneer LVL parallel strand I-joist Fiberboard hardboard Masonite MDF Oriented strand board Oriented structural straw board Particle board Plywood Structural insulated panel Wood-plastic composite lumber
Fuelwood	Charcoal biochar Firelog Firewood Pellet fuel Wood fuel
Fibers	Cardboard Corrugated fiberboard Paper Paperboard Pulp Pulpwood Rayon
Derivatives	Birch-tar Cellulose nano Hemicellulose Cellulosic ethanol Dyes Lignin Liquid smoke Lye Methanol Pyroligneous acid Pine tar Pitch Sandalwood oil Tannin Wood gas
By-products	Barkdust Black liquor Ramial chipped wood Sawdust Tall oil Wood flour Wood wool Woodchips
Historical	Axe ties Clapboard Dugout canoe Potash Sawdust brandy Split-rail fence Tanbark Timber framing Wooden masts
See also	Biomass Certified wood Destructive distillation Dry distillation Engineered bamboo Forestry List of woods Mulch Non-timber forest products Papermaking Wood drying Wood preservation Wood processing Woodworking
Forestry portal Trees portal Category Commons WikiProject Forestry

Non-timber forest products
Animal products	Furs Honey Pine honey Wild game
Berries Tree fruit	Blackberry Blueberry Bilberry Breadfruit Cocoa bean Coconut Durian Gambooge Huckleberry Jackfruit Juniper berry Lingonberry Raspberry Tamarind Woodland strawberry
Edible plants / roots	Betel Fiddlehead ferns Mahuwa flowers Sago palm queen Sassafras filé powder root beer Saw palmetto Wild ginseng
Mushrooms	Bare-toothed russula Bay bolete Birch bolete Cep Chanterelle Honey mushroom Lingzhi Matsutake Meadow mushroom Morel Oyster mushroom Parasol mushroom Red cap Saffron milk cap Slippery jack Truffle Yellow knight
Nuts Spices	Allspice Areca nut Bay leaf Black pepper Brazil nut Cinnamon Clove Hazelnut Malva nut Nutmeg Pine nut Vanilla
Oil Waxes	Carnauba Chaulmoogra (Hydnocarpus wightiana) Cocoa butter Eucalyptol Eucalyptus Japan wax Kokum Kusum Mahuwa Nagkesar Palm (kernel) Pongamia Phulwara Pilu Sal-seed (Shorea robusta) Sandalwood Shea butter Tea-seed Tea-tree Vateria indica
Resins	Benzoin Birch tar Camphor Creosote Frankincense Gamboge Kauri Lacquer Mastic Myrrh Pine tar Pitch Rosin Turpentine Varnish
Sap / Gum / etc.	Birch syrup Chicle chewing gum Coconut sugar Date sugar Fruit syrup Gum arabic Gutta-percha Kino Latex Maple sugar Maple syrup Palm sugar Palm wine akpeteshie ogogoro Rubber Spruce gum
Other	Bamboo edible musical instruments textiles Birch bark Birch beer Cork Ferns Forage Gambier Moss Natural dyes henna Peat Quinine Rattan Shellac Tanbark tannin Thatching Tendu leaves Willow bark
Related	Dehesa (Iberian agroforestry) Forest farming / gardening Honey hunting Indian forest produce Mushroom hunting Naval stores Permaforestry Resin extraction Rubber tapping Wildcrafting
Forestry portal Trees portal Category Commons WikiProject Forestry

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.