AYURVEDIC PRACTITIONER
| Chandana, ©2008 Todd Caldecott |
Botanical name: Santalum album, Santalaceae Common names: Chandana ('gladdening') (S); Sandal (H), Chandanam (T), Sandalwood (E), Tan xiang (C) Part used: Dried heartwood, essential oil. Botany: Chandana is a medium-sized evergreen parasitic tree with slender drooping branches that when mature attains a height of up to 18 meters. The rough bark is dark grey to brownish black with short vertical cracks, and the highly scented heartwood is yellowish-brown in colour when fresh and becoming dark reddish brown with oxidation. The leaves are simple, opposite, elliptic-lanceolate and glabrous. The flowers are brownish or reddish purple borne in axillary paniculate cymes, giving rise to globose fruits drupes. Chandana is found in the dry deciduous forests of south India on stony but fertile soil, up to 1200 meters in elevation. Chandana and allied species are scattered widely from the Malay Archipelago to Australia and the Pacific islands including Hawaii. In India only wild mature specimens of Chandana between 30 and 50 years are considered suitable for harvesting, and this relatively slow growth complexed with a consistently high demand for this product, as well as illegal poaching, forest fires and disease, has made it a threatened species. India currently does not allow the export of any S. album timber. A similar species native to Australia identified as S. spicatum is currently being used as a substitute for S. album (Evans 1989, Hamilton & Conrad 1990, Kirtikar & Basu 1935, Warrier et al 1996). Dravyguna: Constituents: The heartwood of Chandana contains an essential oil called sandalwood oil, 90% of which are the sesquiterpene alcohols Α and Β-santalol, and 6% sesquiterpene hydrocarbons including Α and Β-santalenes, epi-Β-santalene, and Α and Β-curcumenes. The a and b-santalols are responsible for the characteristic odour and colour of sandalwood oil. Other constituents in the essential oil include dihydro-Β-agarofuran, santene, teresantol, borneol, teresantalic acid, santalone, santanol and trcyclo-ekasantalal. The bark contains tannins, fatty acids and a waxy material. The essential oil of S. spicatum is said to contain a very similar range of constituents as S. album, as well as the sesquiterpene furan dendrolasin that has a sweet, lemongrass fragrance (Yoganarasimhan 2000, 481; Evans 1989, 474; Duke 1985, 426; Walker 1968). Medical research: Toxicity: Possible cytochrome p-450 inducement in high doses long term (Jones et al 1994). The essential oil reported to have a "baneful effect upon the kidneys" in larger doses, taken internally (Nadkarni 1954, 1102). Indications: Gastric irritability, dysentery, biliousness, jaundice, cough, bronchitis, fever, inflammatory skin diseases, herpes, skin cancer, poisoning, thirst, hemorrhage, burning sensations, cystitis, menorrhagia, leucorrhea, headache, memory loss, psychosis, depression, cardiac debility, palpitations, arrhythmia. Contraindications: Renal disease; Vatakopa; concurrent usage with pharmaceuticals; beware of common adulterants to the oil, such as castor and cedar wood oil. Medicinal uses: Chandana has long been esteemed in India as not only a useful medicine, but as an important construction material that is highly resistant to decay, and as an important fragrance in Hindu ceremonies, often applied to the forehead by devout Hindus as a tilak to pacify the doshas of the mind. To this end the Chakradatta mentions Chandanadi lepa in the treatment of headache, comprised of equal parts powders of Chandana, Ushira, Madhuka (Glycyrrhiza glabra), Bala, Vyaghranakha (Capparis zeylanica) and Nilotpala (Monochoria hastata), mixed with milk, prepared as a paste and applied to the head (Sharma 2002, 562). Several texts including the Charaka samhita, Chakradatta and Sharngadhara samhita mention a complex polyherbal medicated oil that contains Chandana as the chief ingredient called Chandanadya taila, taken internally and applied topically in the treatment of spiritual possession, epilepsy, mental disorders, hemorrhage and consumptive conditions (Sharma 2002, 144; Srikanthamurthy 1984, 135). On a more mundane level, Chandana is specific to Paittic disorders, the ground powder applied topically as a paste made with cool water or milk for inflammatory skin conditions such as herpes, scabies, pruritis, prickly heat, and insect bites, and internally as an emulsion in the treatment of gastric irritability, dysentery, thirst, and heat stroke. In mild tachycardia (i.e. "tobacco heart") Chandana is stated to have a calming nervine effect, slowing heart rate and promoting contentment and relaxation (Nadkarni 1954, 1102). Bensky and Gamble mention that Chandana is used with the Chinese herbs Dan shen (Salvia miltorrhiza) and Xi xin (Asarum sieboldii) for angina (1986, 240). The essential oil of Chandana is a useful remedy in afflictions of the urinary tract, such as cystitis, gonorrhea and pyelitis, and can be used in similar dosages for irritating coughs and bronchitis. The Eclectic physicians Felter and Lloyd state that the oil is specific to "…subacute and chronic affections of mucous tissues, particularly gonorrhoea after the active symptoms have been mitigated" (1893). An emulsion of the wood mixed with sugar, honey and rice is used to check gastric irritability (Nadkarni 1954, 1101). When mixed with zinc oxide ointment (10%, v/v), the essential oil is a useful adjunct in the treatment of herpetic lesions, reapplied every few hours over a period of days until the inflammation ceases. Owing to its astringent and cooling qualities, Chandana is a useful hemostatic and a specific to a group of diseases called rakta pitta, all of which are characterized by hemorrhage, as well as daha, or Œburning sensations.¹ To this end Chandana is taken both internally and applied topically, in the latter case either as a paste mixed with cool milk or decocted and then cooled as a bath. Due to its drying (ruksha) properties a decoction of Chandana is also recommended by the Ashtanga Hrdaya as dravya for vasanta rtu charya (spring regimen) to relieve excess Kapha (Srikanthamurthy 1994, 37). Dosage: References:
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