What is Sandalwood ?

Australia and the Pacific. Immensely popular in modern cosmetics, sandalwood oil has an impressively long history – with its earliest uses dating back over 5,000 years.

Sandalwood or Chandan as it is called in Hindi, is a distinctively aromatic and fine grained wood renowned for its perfume and essential oils.

The process of distilling sandalwood takes longer than any other natural extract. That’s because the oil is very tightly wound within the cellular structure of the heart tree, making it difficult to extract. There is a benefit to this, however, as sandalwood extract is among the world’s strongest, most distinctive and long-lasting fragrances.

Oil was distilled for the first time in 1875, and by the turn of the 20th century, production of Australian sandalwood oil was intermittent. However, in the late 1990s, Western Australian sandalwood oil enjoyed a revival and by 2009 had peaked at more than 20,000 kg (44,000 lb) per year – much of which went to the fragrance industries in Europe.

While Australia is perhaps one of the region’s most synonymous with sandalwood cultivation, the extract is more closely interwoven with the history, heritage and culture of India.

Sandalwood or Chandan as it is called in Hindi, is a distinctively aromatic and fine grained wood renowned for its perfume and essential oils.

sandalwood is among our favourite scents, and the perfect accompaniment to many of our signature fragrances.

For thousands of years, sandalwood has been used widely across this sweeping Asian nation, featuring in everything from religious ceremonies to Ayurvedic medicine and aromatherapy.

Although overall production has decreased, by 2011, a significant percentage of its production was heading to the chewing tobacco industry in India alongside Indian sandalwood – the chewing tobacco market being the largest market for both oils in 2012.

Sandalwood or Chandan as it is called in Hindi, is a distinctively aromatic and fine grained wood renowned for its perfume and essential oils.

Sandalwood has been harvested in India for over 5,000 years, with Ancient Egyptians importing the wood to use in medicine and for embalming their dead.

Sandalwood has been used in India since 4000 years ago. It was an essential ingredient in traditional Chinese and Tibetan medicine.

The Silappathikaarum (The Ankle Bracelet), a Tamil romance (roughly dated to the late 2nd century) suggests the presence of special streets that were devoted to the merchants who traded in items such as coral, pure gold, sandalwood, fine silks, rich ivory carvings, woven fabrics and lustrous pearls.

Producing commercially valuable sandalwood with high levels of fragrance oils requires Santalum trees to be a minimum of 15 years old (S. album) the age at which they will be harvested in Western Australia – the yield, quality and volume are still to be clearly understood.

In India itself, the extract was first used during religious ceremonies, with the aroma being an integral part of the country’s three main religious groups: Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam.

The botanical name of Sandalwood is Santalum album. Santalum album is known by many names such as White Sandalwood, Mysore Sandalwood, East Indian Sandalwood and Chandan.

The Silappathikaarum (The Ankle Bracelet), a Tamil romance (roughly dated to the late 2nd century) suggests the presence of special streets that were devoted to the merchants who traded in items such as coral, pure gold, sandalwood, fine silks, rich ivory carvings, woven fabrics and lustrous pearls.

Yield of oil tends to vary depending on the age and location of the tree; usually, the older trees yield the highest oil content and quality. Australia likely will be the largest producer of S. album by 2018, the majority grown around Kununurra, Western Australia.

In Hinduism, particularly, sandalwood is considered sacred. Indian Hindus use extracts from the wood to pay homage to the God Shiva, creating a paste which is used to mark the forehead during religious ceremonies.

The Sandalwood tree grows in abundance in Eastern India in states of Mysore, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. This tree is also being cultivated in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and North Western Australia.

Traditionally, it has been used in the making of incense, oils, medicine, perfumes, carvings and a variety of handcrafted ornaments. It has been valued for more than two thousand years for use in religious rituals.

Away from religion, sandalwood has long been used in medicine, with Ancient Egyptians, Chinese and Japanese civilisations using the wood for its healing and restorative properties.

The Sandalwood tree is highly valued for it's Sandalwood Oil that is extracted from the heartwood of this tree.

Western Australian sandalwood is also grown in plantations in its traditional growing area in the wheatbelt east of Perth, where more than 15,000 ha (37,000 acres) are in plantations.

. By 700 B.C it had a high value as a trading item and has been found in the Egyptian embalming formulas. The craft was once only restricted to royalty, and the ornate artifacts were showcased in luxurious interiors.