Santalum album L. | |
Santalaceae | |
Sandhanam | |
| Botanical Name | Santalum album L. |
| Synonyms | Santalum ellipticum. Zipp. ex Span, Santalum myrtifolium L. |
| Family | Santalaceae |
| Common Name | English : Sandalwood / Tamil : Sandhanam |
| Distribution | Global : Malaysia, Indonesia, India Indian : Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Mahrastra and Tamil Nadu. |
| Description | : Evergreen trees up to 10 m height, bark dark grey to black, rough with short vertical cracks. Leaves simple, opposite, petiolate, slender, glabrous, elliptic, elliptic-ovate or lanceolate, apex acute, margin entire, glabrous, shiny above and glaucous beneath, coriaceous, lateral nerves 8-13 pairs. Inflorescence axillary or terminal paniculate cymes. Flowers, Pentamerous, complete, bisexual, reddish-purple, tepals 5, basally connate into a campanulate tube, connate to the basal part of the ovary, lobes ovate, thin, fleshy, minutely ciliate, disc concave, adhering to the bottom of perianth, its lobes alternate with tepals. Stamens 5, alternates with disc, filaments short, anthers ovoid, 2-celled. Ovary superior later half inferior at the time of flowering, globose, 1-celled, ovules 2-3, pendulous from below the long, acuminate, central column, style 1.5 mm, stigma 3 lobed. Fruit a drupe, globose, blackish-purple, annulate above, beaked with the basal part of the style. seed one. |
| Flowering Fruiting period | December-April/Throughout the year |
| Uses | Timber, Cosmetics, Perfumes and Soaps. |
| Medicinal Uses | Treating the common cold, cough, bronchitis, fever, and sore mouth |
| Tamil Name | Sandhanam |