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PrintAll about phytotherapy > Sandalwood water (Santalum Album)
No one who has travelled in India will ever forget the characteristic scent of sandalwood. It permeates rooms, lingers in clothing and envelops the body. The source of this scent is a tree that can grow to a height of ten metres,is evergreen and flowers throughout the year. Sandalwood is not fussy about where it grows – whether in fertile valleys or on dry mountainsides, it thrives anywhere. Indeed, the scent of its wood seems to be more intense the dryer and poorer the soil it grows in. Its leaves are large and leathery, somewhat like laurel leaves. Its unscented flowers usually have four petals which on opening look yellow but gradually take on a deep red colour. They grow in clusters at the tips of the branches. Sandalwood trees are semi-parasites. They derive some of their nourishment from the root systems of neighbouring plants, but can also survive alone, without a host plant. A whole range of different plants can serve them as host – for example tall grasses such as Kans grass (Saccharum spontanum), palms and plants of the Araliaceae family. On contact with the roots of the host plant, the root tips of the sandalwood saplings form an organ called a haustorium which penetrates the roots of the host. As this grows, it forms nodules up to two centimetres in size which allow the sandalwood tree to take over the host roots. The sandalwood tree draws so much nourishment from the host plant that the latter struggles to grow.
Habitat: South-west Asia, Malaysia
Essential sandalwood oil obtained from the wood has antispasmodic and antibacterial properties and is an antiviral effective against herpes viruses.
The essential oil obtained from the reddish heartwood plays an important role in the perfume industry. In order to obtain the sought-after oil, trees are felled at 30 to 60 years of age. To harvest the heartwood, the felled trunks of the trees used to be left lying on the ground for Nature to take its course. White termites would attack the bark and the soft sapwood, until a few months later only the almost cleanly stripped hard heartwood remained. Today, machines are employed to strip the trees. After this the heartwood is chipped and ground to a powder so that the essential oil can be obtained by means of steam distillation. Sandalwood chippings supplement chewing tobacco and are suitable for smoking on charcoal. Incense sticks can also be made from the ground wood. For this, wood meal is mixed with a binding agent, for example gum arabic, and charcoal, then rolled into sticks and dried. The sandalwood water which is also generated during steam distillation is used to give a masculine note to aftershave, for instance.
The sandalwood for the Dr.Hauschka Lavender Sandalwood Body Moisturizer comes from sustainably managed, certified organic forestry. Tree nurseries propagate the sandalwood trees and their host plants, both of which are cultivated on plantations.
Sandalwood water supplements the formula for the Dr.Hauschka Intensive Treatment 04. It contains the hydrophilic portion of the distillate and gives the skin tone and vitality.
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Spas
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Care & Make-up
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Health
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For Men
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Glossaries
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Various
