230 WOODS 



The tree is regularly cultivated in districts situated to the west and 

 north-west of Madras. The felling of the trees is controlled by the 

 inspectors of forests, and the revenue thus obtained is considerable. 

 The dark red heartwood alone is exported. 



Description Red sanders wood is imported in irregular often 

 branching billets, commonly 7 to 15 cm. thick and about a metre 

 long, deprived of both the rugged bark and the pale sap wood. It is 

 of a deep blood-red colour both internally and externally, the trans- 

 verse section exhibiting alternating darker and lighter zones. The 

 medullary rays are just visible under the lens ; the vessels are large, 

 mostly isolated, and connected by fine, bright red lines (wood paren- 

 chyma). The wood is very hard, but can be easily split. It is 

 inodorous, has but a very slight astringent taste. 



The red resinous colouring matter is produced in the form of droplets 

 in all the elements of the heartwood (wood fibres, wood parenchyma, 

 and vessels). It is readily soluble in alcohol, but only very sparingly 

 in water, and in this respect it differs essentially from logwood, which 

 freely yields its colouring matter to water. 



In pharmacy the wood is usually employed in the form of small, 

 hard, splintery raspings of a dull purplish red colour. 



The student should observe 



(a) The dull purplish red colour, 



(b) The hardness, 



(c) The slight solubility of the colouring matter in water. 



Constituents. The chief constituent of red sanders wood is santalih 

 (santalic acid), C 15 H 14 5 , which has been obtained in blood-red micro- 

 scopic needles melting at 226. It is insoluble in water, but yields 

 a blood-red solution with alcohol, yellow with ether, and violet with 

 caustic alkalies. Santal (Weidel, 1869), pterocarpin, and homoptero- 

 carpin (Cazeneuve and Hugouneng, 1887, 1890) are colourless crystal- 

 line substances also contained in red sanders wood. 



Use. Red sanders wood is used solely as a colouring agent, and 

 even in this respect it has only a limited application, as the colouring 

 matter requires alcohol to dissolve it, and is precipitated when the 

 alcoholic solution is diluted with water. 



SANDAL WOOD 



(Yellow Sandal Wood, Lignum Santali) 



Source, &c. The yellow sandal wood tree, Santdlum album, Linne 

 (N.O. Santaldcece) , is a small tree distributed over India and the 

 Malay Archipelago. It is found especially in Southern India, from 

 Mysore to Madras, and is regularly cultivated there for the sake of 



