_Lignum Santalinum album vel citrinum_; _Sandal-wood_; F. _Bois de
Santal citrin_; G. _Weisses oder Gelbes Sandelholz_.
=Botanical Origin=—_Santalum album_[2243] L., a small tree, 20 to 30
feet high, with a trunk 18 to 35 inches in girth, a native of the
mountainous parts of the Indian peninsula, but especially of Mysore
and parts of Coimbatore and North Canara, in the Madras Presidency;
it grows in dry and open places, often in hedge-rows, not in forests.
The same tree is also found in the islands of the Eastern Archipelago,
notably of Sumba (otherwise called Chandane or Sandal-wood Island), and
Timur.
In later times, sandal-wood has been extensively collected in the
Hawaiian or Sandwich Islands, where its existence was first pointed
out about the year 1778, from _Santalum Freycinetianum_ Gaud. and _S.
pyrularium_ A. Gray;[2244] in the Viti or Fiji Islands from _S. Yasi_
Seem.; in New Caledonia from _S. austro-caledonicum_, Vieill;[2245] and
in Western Australia from _Fusanus spicatus_ Br. (_Santalum spicatum_
DC., _S. cygnorum_ Miq.).[2246] The mother plants of _Japanese_ and
_West Indian_ sandal-wood are not known to us.
In India the sandal-wood tree is protected by Government, and is the
source of a profitable commerce. In other countries it has been left to
itself, and has usually been extirpated, at least from all accessible
places, within a few years of its discovery.
=History=—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 _Rāmāyana_ 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 (Ξύλα σαγαλίνα) among
the Indian commodities imported into Omana in the Persian Gulf.[2247]
The Τζανδάνα mentioned towards the middle of the 6th century by Cosmas
Indicopleustes,[2248] 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.
[2243] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s _Medic. Plants_, part 18 (1877).
[2244] Seemann, _Flora Vitiensis_, 1865-73. 210-215.
[2245] The natural woods having been nearly exhausted, the tree is
now under culture in the island. _Catalogue des produits des colonies
françaises, Exposition de 1878_, p. 332; they state there that the
island of Nossi-bé, on the north-western coast of Madagascar, also
supplies some sandal-wood.
[2246] Whether _Santalum lanceolatum_ Br., a tree found throughout N.
and E. Australia, and called _sandal-wood_ by the colonists, is an
object of trade, we know not.
[2247] Vincent, _Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients_, ii. (1807)
378.
[2248] Migne, _Patrologiæ Cursus_, series Græca, tom. 88. 446.
Sandal-wood is named by Masudi[2249] 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.[2250]
In the 11th century sandal-wood was found among the treasures of the
Egyptian khalifs, as stated in our article on camphor at page 511.
Among European writers, Constantinus Africanus, who flourished at
Salerno in the 11th century, was one of the earliest to mention
Sandalum.[2251] Ebn Serabi, called Serapion the Younger, who lived
about the same period, was acquainted with _white_, _yellow_, and
_red_ sandal-wood.[2252] All three kinds of sandal-wood also occur in
a list of drugs[2253] 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_ (see p. 199), 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.[2254]
On the other hand, we learn from Barbosa[2255] 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
1_s._ per lb. on the _white_, and 2_s._ per lb. on the _yellow_.[2256]
[2249] I. 222 in the work quoted in the Appendix.
[2250] They are 11 feet high and 9 feet wide, and richly carved out
of sandal-wood; they were constructed for the temple of Somnath in
Guzerat, once esteemed the holiest temple in India. On its destruction
in A.D. 1025, the gates were carried off to Ghuzni in Afghanistan,
where they remained until the capture of that city by the English in
1842, when they were taken back to India. They are now preserved in the
citadel of Agra. For a representation of the gates, see _Archæeologia_,
xxx. (1844) pl. 14.
[2251] Opera, Basil. 1536-39, _Lib. de Gradibus_, 369.
[2252] _Liber Serapionis aggregatus in medicinis simplicibus_, 1473.
[2253] Flückiger, _Die Frankfurter Liste_, Halle, 1873. 11.
[2254] Thus Milburn in his _Oriental Commerce_ (1813) says—“ ... the
deeper the colour, the higher is the perfume; and hence the merchants
sometimes divide sandal into _red_, _yellow_, and _white_, but these
are all different shades of the same colour, and do not arise from any
difference in the species of the tree.”—(i. 291.)
[2255] Ramusio, _Navigationi et Viaggi_, etc., Venet. 1554. fol. 357
b., _Libro di Odoardo Barbosa Portoghese_.
[2256] _The Rates of Marchandizes_, Lond. 1635.
The first figure and satisfactory description of _Santalum album_ occur
in the _Herbarium Amboinense_ of Rumphius (ii. tab. 11).
=Production=—The dry tracts producing this valuable wood occupy patches
of a strip of country lying chiefly in Mysore and Coimbatore, about
250 miles long, north and north-west of the Neilgherry Hills, and
having Coorg and Canara between it and the Indian Ocean; also a piece
of country further eastward in the districts of Salem and North Arcot,
where the tree grows from the sea-level up to an elevation of 3000
feet. In Mysore, where sandal-wood is most extensively produced, the
trees all belong to Government, and can only be felled by the proper
officers. This privilege was conferred on the East India Company by a
treaty with Hyder Ali, made 8 August 1770, and the monopoly has been
maintained to the present day. The Mysore animal exports of sandal wood
are about 700 tons, valued at £27,000.[2257] They are shipped from
Mangalore.
A similar monopoly existed in the Madras Presidency until a few years
ago, when it was abandoned. But sandal-wood is still a source of
revenue to the Madras Government, which by the systematic management of
the Forest Department has of late years been regularly increasing. The
quantity of sandal-wood felled in the Reserved Forests during the year
1872-3 was returned as 15,329 maunds (547½ tons).[2258]
The sandal-wood tree, which is indigenous to the regions just
mentioned, used to be reproduced by seeds sown spontaneously or by
birds; but it is now being raised in regular plantations, the seeds
being sown two or three in a hole with a chili (_Capsicum_) seed, the
latter producing a quick-growing seedling which shades the sandal while
young.[2259] It is probable that the nurse-plant affords _sustenance_,
for it has been shown[2260] that _Santalum_ is parasitic, its roots
attaching themselves by tuber-like processes to those of many other
plants; and it is also said that young sandal plants thrive best when
grass is allowed to grow up in the seed-beds.
The trees attain their prime in 20 to 30 years, and have then trunks
as much as a foot in diameter. A tree having been felled, the branches
are lopped off, and the trunk allowed to lie on the ground for several
months, during which time the white ants eat away the greater part of
the inodorous sapwood. The trunk is then roughly trimmed, sawn into
billets 2 to 2½ feet long, and taken to the forest depots. There the
wood is weighed, subjected to a second and more careful trimming, and
classified according to quality. In some parts it is customary not to
fell but to dig the tree up; in others the root is dug up after the
trunk has been cut down,—the root affording valuable wood, which with
the chips and sawdust are preserved for distillation, or for burning in
the native temples. The sap wood and branches are worthless.[2261]
[2257] B. H. Baden Powell, _Report on the Administration of the Forest
Department in the several provinces under the Government of India_,
1872-73, Calcutta, 1874. vol i. 27.
[2258] _Report of the Administration of the Madras Presidency during
the year 1872-73_, Madras, 1874. 18. 143.
[2259] Beddome, _Flora Sylvatica for Southern India_, 1872. 256.
[2260] Scott in _Journ. of Agricult. and Horticult. Soc. of India_,
Calcutta, vol. ii. part 1 (1871) 287.
[2261] Elliot, _Experiences of a Planter in the Jungles of Mysore_,
ii. (1871) 237; also verbal information communicated by Capt. Campbell
Walker, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Madras.
In 1863 a sort of sandal-wood afforded by _Fusanus spicatus_ (p. 599)
was one of the chief exports of Western Australia, whence it was
shipped to China. A trifling payment for permission to cut growing
timber of any kind was the only barrier placed on the felling of the
trees. The farmers employed their teams during the dull season in
bringing to Perth or Guildford the logs of sandal which had been felled
and trimmed in the bush; and there was a flourishing trade so long as
trees of a fair size could be obtained within 100 or even 150 miles
of the towns, where the commodity was worth £6 to £6 10_s._ per ton.
But the ill-regulated and improvident destruction of the trees in the
more easily accessible districts has so reduced their numbers that the
trade in that part of Australia soon came to an end.[2262] Australian
sandal-wood appears however to be still an article of commerce, if one
may draw such an inference from the fact that 47,904 cwt. of sandal
wood were imported into Singapore from Australia in the year 1872. It
was mostly re-shipped to China.[2263]
=Description=—sandal-wood is not much known in English commerce, and
is by no means always to be found even in London. That which we have
examined, and which we believe was Indian, was in cylindrical logs,
mostly about 6 inches in diameter (the largest 8 inches—smallest 3:
inches) and 3 to 4 feet long, extremely ponderous; the bark had been
removed. A transverse section of sandal-wood exhibits it of a pale
brown, marked with rather darker concentric zones and (when seen under
a lens) numerous open pores. The tissue is traversed by medullary rays,
also perceptible by the aid of a lens. The wood splits easily, emitting
when comminuted an agreeable odour which is remarkably persistent; it
has a strongish aromatic taste.
The varieties of sandal-wood are not classified by the few persons
who deal in the article in London, and we are unable to point out
characters by which they may be distinguished. In the price-currents of
commercial houses in China three sorts of sandal-wood are enumerated,
namely, _South Sea Island_, _Timor_, and _Malabar_; the last fetches
three or four times as high a price as either of the others. Even the
Indian sandal-wood may vary in an important manner. Beddome,[2264]
conservator of forests in Madras, and an excellent observer, remarks
that the finest sandal-wood is that which has grown slowly on rocky,
dry and poor land; and that the trees found in a rich alluvial soil,
though of very fine growth, produce no heartwood and are consequently
valueless. A variety of the tree with more lanceolate leaves (var.
β _myrtifolium_ DC.), native of the eastern mountains of the Madras
Presidency, affords a sandal-wood which is nearly inodorous.
=Microscopic Structure=—The woody rays or wedges show a breadth varying
from 35 to 420 mkm., the primary being frequently divided by secondary
medullary rays. These latter rays consist of one, often of two, rows
of cells of the usual form. The woody tissue which they enclose is
chiefly made up of small ligneous fibres with pointed ends, some larger
parenchymatous cells, and thick-walled vessels. The resin and essential
oil reside chiefly in the medullary rays, as shown by the darker colour
of these latter.
=Chemical Composition=—The most important constituent is the essential
oil, which the wood yields to the extent of from 2 to 5 per cent.[2265]
In India, with imperfect stills, 2·5 per cent. of the oil are obtained;
the roots yield the largest amount and the finest quality of it.[2266]
It is a light yellow, thick liquid, possessing the characteristic odour
of sandal; that which we examined had a sp. gr. of 0·963. We did not
succeed in finding a fixed boiling point of the oil; it began to boil
at 214° C., but the temperature quickly rose to 255°, the oil acquiring
a darker hue. Oil of sandal-wood varies much in the strength and
character of its aroma, according to the sort of wood from which it is
produced.
[2262] Millett, _An Australian Parsonage_, Lond., 1872, 43. 95. 382.
[2263] _Straits Settlements Blue Book for 1872_, Singapore, 1873. 298.
347.—It is possible that the sandal-wood in question may have been the
produce of the South Sea Islands, shipped from an Australian port.
[2264] _Op. cit._
[2265] Information obligingly communicated by Messrs. Schimmel and Co.,
Leipzig (1878).
[2266] Dr. Bidie, in _Pharmacopœia of India_, 1868, p. 461.
The oil as largely prepared by Messrs. Schimmel & Co., in a column
100 millimetres long, deviates the plane of polarization 18·6° to
the _left_. Oil of Venezuela sandal-wood, from the same distillers,
examined in the same manner, deviates 6°·75 to the _right_.
From the wood, treated with boiling alcohol, we obtained about 7 per
cent. of a blackish extract, from which a tannate was precipitated
by alcoholic solution of acetate of lead. Decomposed by sulphuretted
hydrogen, the tannate yielded a tannic acid having but little colour,
and striking a greenish hue with a ferric salt. The extract also
contained a dark resin.
=Commerce=—The greatest trade in sandal-wood is in China, which country
in the year 1866 imported at the fourteen treaty ports then open 87,321
peculs, equivalent to 5,197 tons; of this vast quantity the city of
Hankow on the river Yangtsze, received no less than 61,414 peculs, or
more than seven times as much as any other port.[2267] The imports into
Hankow have recently been much smaller, namely, 14,989 peculs in 1871
and 12,798 peculs in 1872.[2268] On the other hand, Shanghai lying near
the mouth of the same great river, imported in 1872, 59,485 peculs of
sandal-wood, the estimated value of which was about £100,000. In 1877
the imports of all China were 72,934 peculs.
A considerable trade in sandal-wood is done in Bombay, the quantity
imported thither annually being about 650 tons, and the animal export
about 400 tons.[2269]
Oil of sandal-wood is largely manufactured on the ghats between
Mangalore and Mysore, where fuel for the stills is abundant. Official
returns[2270] represent the quantity of the oil imported into Bombay
in the year 1872-73 as 10,348 lbs., value £8,374; 4,500 lbs. were
re-exported by sea.
=Uses=—The essential oil has of late been prescribed as a substitute
for copaiba, otherwise sandal-wood has hardly any uses in modern
European medicine. It is employed as a perfume and for the fabrication
of small articles of ornament. Among the natives of India it is
largely consumed in the celebration of sepulchral rites, wealthy
Hindus showing their respect for a departed relative by adding sticks
of sandal-wood to the funereal pile. The powder of the wood made into
a paste with water is used for making the caste mark, and also for
medicinal purposes. The consumption of sandal-wood in China appears to
be principally for the incense used in the temples.
[2267] _Reports on Trade at the ports in China open to foreign trade
for 1866_, published by order of the Inspector-General of Customs,
Shanghai, 1867. 120. 121.—One pecul = 133⅓ lb.
[2268] _Commercial Reports of H. M. Consuls in China for 1871_ (p. 50)
and 1872 (pp. 62. 159).
[2269] From the official document quoted at p. 601, note 1.
[2270] See p. 333, note 3.
_Gymnosperms._