Santalum, Sandalwood, Tan Xiang 檀香Chanana (Ayurveda)Tan Xiang (TCM) Tsan Dan Dkar Po ཙན་དན་དཀར་པོ (Tibetan) Sandal Safed (Unani) |
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Ortus Sanitatis, Meydenbach, 1491
Santalum album,Medical Botany, Woodville, 1810
Packaging for imported SandalwoodA Manual of Organic Materia Medica and Pharmacognosy, Sayre, 1907
Australian Sandalwood available at the Chengdu Medicine Market (2010)BUY PREMIUM SANDALWOOD POWDER
Botanical name:
Santalum spp.
1. S. album (White)
2. S. citrinum (Yellow)
3. S. spicatum, S. lanceolatum (from Australia) are also used and are available on the Chinese market.
“Sandal is a kind of thick wood procured from China. It is of three kinds: (a) yellow (b) red and (c) whitish-yellow” (Avicenna)
See also Red Sandalwood, Pterocarpus santalinus
Parts used:
Wood
“Galen and Ibn e Maswaih [Mesue] consider Red Sandalwood to be most potent but according to some other physicians, the white variety is relatively stronger”. (Avicenna)
Temperature & Taste:
Cool, dry. Pungent, slightly Bitter and Sweet
Regarded as Warm in TCM. Older TCM texts regard White Sandalwood as Warm, and “Purple” (Red) Sandalwood as Cool.
“It is Cold from the last phase of the Second degree to the Third degree. It is Dry in the Second degree” (Avicenna)
Classifications:
2A APERIENT. 2B ATTENUATERS. 2F. PURIFYING. 2H. CARMINATIVE. 2O. ASTRINGENT. 2P. HEMOSTATICS. 2S. STRENGTHENING.
3B. FEBRIFUGE & ANTIPYRETIC. 3D. CORDIALS & CARDIACS. 3F. LITHONTRIPTIC
4c. CARDIAC. 4d. PECTORAL. 4e. STOMACHIC. 4f. SPLENETIC. 4g. HEPATIC. 4h. NEPHRITIC. 4i. UTERINE. 4j. NERVINE
Uses:
1. Moves the Qi, Eases Pain: (all systems)
–Chest and Abdominal pain from Qi stagnation
-abdominal distention with Pain, Nausea, Indigestion, Vomiting and Stomachache
-“Strengthens the Stomach” (Salmon).
-Stomach weakness with Heat (Avicenna)
2. Moves the Blood and Qi, Clears Stasis, Benefits the Heart (all systems)
-chest pain, Palpitations, Angina Pectoris, Heart disease
-Cordial: said to ‘cause cheerfulness’ in Depression or Nervousness, especially when related to Heart weakness.
-in Tibetan formulas for Nervous and Mental disorders, Trembling, Paralysis and Epilepsy.
-Back pain, Menstrual disorders, Rheumatism, Gout, Wounds and Ulcers in Tibetan Medicine.
-Lymphatic congestion and Nodes.
3. Clears Liver Heat: (all systems)
-“Cools the Liver” (Salmon); White Sandalwood is accounted a good Pitta/Heat relieving drug.
-Liver disease, Fevers associated with Liver heat, bilious conditions,
-Liver and Gall Bladder complaints (Commission E)
-“Sandal is useful in Headache” (Avicenna)
4. Clears Wind-Heat, Resists Poison (all systems)
-Acute Fever, Chronic and Epidemic Fever
-as an aid against various Toxins and Poisons
-Tibetan Medicine and Ayurveda both recognise White Sandalwood as a main medicine for Heat and Fevers.
-for thirst in Ayurveda (the powder given with coconut milk, or Honey).
-“Sandalwood, specially its white variety is useful in Hot fevers”. (Avicenna)
-“eliminates pyogenic infection due to invading pathogenic Wind and Heat”. (TCM: Tao Hong Jiang)
5. Clears Wind-Heat, Benefit the Lungs (TCM, West, Ayurveda, Tibetan Medicine):
-Coughs, chronic Bronchitis, Lung fever, Hectic fevers, Consumption, Lung ulcers (White)
-Cough, Cold, Bronchitis (Commission E)
–as a snuff in Tibetan formulas for Rhinitis and Sinusitis, and also for Colds and Influenza.
6. Clears Heat, Dries Damp:
-acute heat of the Bladder, including Gonorrhea, chronic Cystitis, Urinary Tract Infections, Prostatitis, Vaginitis, urethritis
-Urinary Tract Infection (Commission E)
-various Fluxes of the bowels and womb from heat including chronic Diarrhea, Dysentery and Gastritis;
-Seminal Emission and Leukorrhea. (Red was preferred for heat and fluxes of the Bowels)
7. Externally:
-a paste can be applied to the temples in Headache or Migraine
-applied to Gout.
-a paste of the wood or the Oil is used as a cooling dressing in inflammatory and Eruptive Skin diseases including Erysipelas, Pruritus, Prickly Heat, Scabies etc. where it is said to be one of the best applications.
-clinically effective against acne, psoriasis, eczema, warts
-a mixture of Sandalwood Oil and Mustard Oil is good for Pimples.
-inflammation of the mouth and pharynx (Commission E)
Comment:
1. White and Yellow Sandalwood effect and move the Qi, the Red effects the Blood. White is most available and used, but the Yellow is better.
2. The White Sandalwood has an effect on Phlegm, the Yellow on Bile and the Red on Blood.
Dose:
Powder: 500mg–3 grams
Decoction: 2–6 grams (up to 12 grams)
TINCTURE (1:5 in 40%): 20–40 drops;
FLUID EXTRACT: 2–5mls;
VOLATILE OIL: 0.3-1.8 mls; 5–10 drops to a maximum of 30 or even 40 drops, has been taken on sugar. In chronic gonorrhea, 15–20 drops has been given 3 times daily.
Corrective:
Honey (Unani)
Substitute:
1. Camphor (Unani)
2. Parmelia perlata (syn. Parmotrema perlatum) can replace White (or Yellow) Sandalwood (Unani).
3. Erythroxylum monogynum is sometimes used as a substitute in parts of India.
Main Combinations:
Rose & Sandalwood
Rose, Sandalwood & Licorice
To move the Qi, its effect is enhanced when combined with Tangerine peel (Ju PI or Chen Pi)
1. Heat and Bile disorders, White Sandalwood with Rhubarb, Yellow Myrobalan, Cinnamon, Camphor, Rose (as in Powder to Purge Bile of Mesue)
2. Fever associated with Wind and Heat:
i. apply Sandalwood powder over the entire body. (Buddhist text)
ii. White Sandalwood, Tabasheer, Safflower, Clove, Pomegranate, Long Pepper, Tinospora (Tibetan Medicine)
3. For Stomach and Liver Heat with Qi stagnation, 3 Sandalwoods with Rose, Rhubarb, Purslane seed, Licorice, Gum Arabic, Tragacanth, the Four Cold Seeds and Camphor (as in Powder of Three Sandalwoods)
4. Liver Heat, and Heat in general:
i. Three Sandalwoods with Rose, Red Coral, Tabasheer, Camphor (as in Powder to Cool the Liver)
ii. White Sandalwood with Wormwood, Schoenanth, Tabasheer, Indian Spikenard, Chicory (as in Powder for the Liver)
iii. White and Red Sandalwood with Tabasheer, Saffron, Picrorhiza, Swertia (Tibetan Medicine)
5. Strengthen the Heart, Sandalwood with Rose, Amber, Bugloss, Balm, Cinnamon, Saffron, Red Coral (as in Powder to Strengthen the Heart)
6. Chest Pain, Angina:
i. Sandalwood with Saffron, Myrrh, Rose
ii. Sandalwood with Arjuna, Lesser Cardamon, Bdellium (Ayurveda)
iii. Sandalwood, Salvia Dan Shen, Asarum Xi Xin (TCM)
iv. Sandalwood, Costus, Musk
7. Strengthen the Brain and Intellect, Sandalwood, Costus, Musk (Unani)
8. Headache:
i. Sandalwood, Licorice, Sida cordifolia, Vetiveria, mixed with milk and applied as a paste.
ii. Sandalwood, Frankincense, Rose, Camphor
9. Nervousness, Anxiety:
i. Sandalwood, Balm, Licorice
ii. Sandalwood, Rose, Aloeswood, Pearl
iii. Sandalwood, Centella, Convolvulus Shakhapushpi (Ayurveda)
10. Strengthen the Stomach, White Sandalwood with Rose, Aloeswood, Cinnamon, Mastic (as in Aromatic Rose Compound Lesser of Mesue)
11. For Catarrh, Consumption, Spitting Blood, and Diarrhea, 3 Sandalwoods with 4 Cold Seeds, Tabasheer, Rose, Barberry, Red Earth, Camphor (as in Troches of Sandalwoods)
12. Lung heat, White Sandalwood with Clove, Saffron, Raisin, Licorice, Tabasheer (as in Sandalwood 8 of Tibetan Medicine)
13. Lung congestion (Qi and Phlegm), Sandalwood, Adhatoda, Inula racemosa (Ayurveda)
14. Urinary infections, Sandalwood, Coriander seed, Tribulus, Boerhaavia (Ayurveda)
15. Skin inflammations, Sandalwood with Madder, Tinospora, Andrographis (Ayurveda)
16. Threatened Miscarriage:
i. White Sandalwood with Aloeswood, Coral, Tabasheer, Bistort, Purslane, Coriander, Mastic (as in Powder Against Miscarriage)
17. Herpes, Sandalwood oil with Zinc oxide ointment topically.
Major Formulas:
Syrup of Sandalwood (Unani)
Cordial Powder
Powder for the Liver (Bononiense)
Powder to Cool the Liver
Powder to Cool the Heart
Abbots Confect of Rose (Diarrhodon Abbatis) (Nicholas)
Powder of Three Sandalwoods (Diatrisantalum) (Mesue)
Cooling Powder of Gems
Troches of Camphor (Mesue)
Troches of Sandalwoods (Trochisci Santalon) (Mesue)
Troches of Rose (Trochisci Diarrhodon)(Nicholas)
Electuarium Dianthu (Galen)
Electuary to Restore Humidity (Arnold de Villa Nova)
Electuary of the Juice of Roses (Mesue)
Electuary for Head and Stomach Pain (Galen)
Tincture of Life (Mynsichts)
Sandalwood 8 (Tibetan)
Sandalwood 18 (Tibetan)
Cool Elixir 9 (Bsil bcud dgu pa) (Tibetan)
Aloeswood 15 (Tibetan)
Aloeswood Clear the Heart 8 Powder
Cautions:
1. In TCM, Sandalwood is not used in Deficient-Heat conditions. It is suitable for these conditions when combined with appropriate medicines as is evident from other Traditions.
2. All Sandalwoods decrease sexual activity with long-term use or in large doses.
Toxicity:
Safety assessment of sandalwood oil (Santalum album L.).
Main Preparations used:
Gummy Extract, Ointment of Sandalwood, Plaster of Sandalwood
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‘Sandal wood, the Sanskrit name for which, Chandana, has passed into many of the languages of India, is mentioned in the Nirukta or writings of Yaska, the oldest Vedic commentary extant, written not later than the 5th century B.C. The wood is also referred to in the ancient Sanskrit epic poems, the Ramayana and Mahabharata, parts of which may be of nearly as early date. The author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, written about the middle of the 1st century, enumerates sandal wood among the Indian commodities imported into Omana in the Persian Gulf. The [?] mentioned towards the middle of the 6th century by Cosmas Indicopleustes, as brought to Taprobane (Ceylon) from China and other emporia, was probably the wood under consideration. In Ceylon its essential oil was used as early as the 9th century in embalming the corpses of the princes. Sandal wood is named by Masudi ‘as one of the costly aromatics of the Eastern Archipelago. In India it was used in the most sacred buildings, of which a memorable example still exists in the famous gates of Somnath, supposed to be 1000 years old. In the 11th century sandal wood was found among the treasures of the Egyptian khalifs, as stated in our article on camphor … Among European writers, Constantinus Africanus, who flourished at Salemo in the 11th century, was one of the earliest to mention Sandalum. Ebn Serabi, |
called Serapion the Younger, who lived about the same period, was acquainted with white, yellow, and red sandal wood. All three kinds of sandalwood also occur in a list of drugs in use at Frankfort, circa A.D. 1450; and in the Compendium Aromatariorum of Saladinus, published in 1488, we find mentioned as proper to be kept by the Italian apothecary,— “Sandali trium generum, scilicet albi, rubii et citrini.” Whether the red sandal here coupled with white and yellow was the inodorous wood of Pterocarpus santalinus, now called Lignum. santalinum rubrum or Red Sanders, is extremely doubtful. It may have meant real sandal wood, of which three shades, designated white, red, and yellow, are still recognized by the Indian traders. On the other hand, we learn from Barbosa that about 1511 white and yellow sandal wood were worth at Calicut on the Malabar Coast from eight to ten times as much as the red, which would show that in his day the red was not a mere variety of the other two, but something far cheaper, like the Red Sanders Wood of modern commerce. In 1635 the subsidy levied on sandal wood imported into England was 1s. per lb. on the white, and 2s. per lb. on the yellow. The first figure and satisfactory description of Santalum album occur in the Herbarium Amboinense of Rumphius. (Pharmacographia, Fluckiger & Hanbury, 1879) |