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Oil  of  Sandal  Wood. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1886. 
OIL  OF  SANDAL  WOOD. 
By  E.  M.  Holmes,  f.l.s., 
Curator  of  the  Museum  of  the  Pharmaceutical  Society. 
In  the  early  part  of  the  present  year  my  attention  was  directed  to 
the  subject  of  sandal  wood  by  the  fact  that  there  appeared  in  the 
druggists'  wholesale  price  lists  an  oil  of  sandal  wood  marked  iCW.  1" 
and  offered  at  about  one-third  of  the  price  of  the  genuine  oil.  As  the 
genus  Santalum  is  not  represented  on  the  American  continent  it  was 
evident  that  the  "West  Indian"  oil  must  be  obtained  from  some  other 
plant.  The  results  of  inquiries  made  since  then  appear  to  me  to 
possess  sufficient  interest  to  be  placed  on  record  in  the  columns  of  this 
Journal,  and  may  perhaps  be  prefaced  with  advantage  by  a  short  ac- 
count of  the  species  which  have  hitherto  furnished  sandal  wood. 
The  genus  Santalum  comprises  about  twenty  species,  distributed 
over  Asia,  Australia  and  Polynesia,  although  others  may  probably 
yet  be  discovered  in  New  Caledonia  and  New  Guinea. 
In  aspect  the  trees  of  this  genus  bear  some  resemblance  to  the 
Myrtacese,  in  having  opposite,  mostly  entire  leaves,  furnished  with  oil 
glands,  and  flowers  similarly  arranged.  Like  the  Eucalypti  they  have 
no  petals,  but  differ  in  the  small  number  of  stamens  (four  or  five)  to 
each  flower,  and  in  having  only  three  to  five  seeds  attached  to  a  central 
placenta. 
All  the  species  delight  in  dry,  rocky  localities,  particularly  those  of 
volcanic  origin,  degenerating  in  their  yield  of  oil  when  grown  in  moist 
situations. 
The  most  westerly  species  is  Santalum  album,  L.,  a  native  of  India 
and  the  islands  of  Sumba  and  Timor  and  other  islands  in  the  Eastern 
archipelago.  The  most  easterly  is  S.  insulare,  found  in  the  Marquesas 
Islands  and  Tahiti.  The  most  northern  species,  S.  Freycinetianum, 
Gaud.,  is  found  in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and  the  most  southerly,  8. 
Cunninghami,  in  New  Zealand. 
The  species  which  have  at  different  times  furnished  the  sandal  wood 
of  commerce  are  as  follows: 
S.  album,  L. — This  species  furnishes  East  Indian  sandal  wood  and 
probably  also  that  known  as  Macassar  sandal  wood.  A  variety  of  S. 
album,  the  S.  myrtifolium,  DC,  which  differs  in  its  more  lanceolate 
leaves,  and  occurs  on  the  mountains  in  the  east  of  Madras,  is  also  a 
source  of  a  sandal  wood  oil,  which  possesses  comparatively  little 
fragrance. 
