Dilip Walse Patil

Scientific Name : Santalum album L.

Category : Angiosperms

Status : Alive

Habit : A small evergreen glabrous tree with slender drooping branches with sap-wood white and odorless, the heart-wood yellowish brown, strongly scented. Leaves : Elliptic-lanceolate, subacute glabrous, entire thin, base acute, petiolate, petioles slender. Inflorescence :Terminal and axillary paniculate cymes. Flowers : Brownish-purple, inodorous, perianth campanulate, limb of 4 velvet triangular-segments, stamens 4, exserted, alternating with 4 rounded obtuse scales. Fruit : Drupes globose, purple-black, endocarp hard ribbed. Flowering and Fruiting Time : March - August Significance : Wood ground up with water into a paste, is applied to local inflammations, to temples in fever, in skin diseases, to allay heat and pruritus. It acts as diaphoretic. In cases of morbid thirst wood-powder is taken in coconut water. A bolus of ground sandal cheeks-hemoptysis in mild form. Essential oil from wood is used in perfumery and is a remedy as demulcent, diuretic and mild stimulant in gonorrhea and chronic cystitis. Oil from the seeds is used in skin diseases.