गन्धसारः - Santalum album
Name - चन्दनम्
Botanical name - Santalum album
Description - Semi-parasitic medium-size tree; bark reddish or dark grey or black, rough, with deep vertical cracks. Leaves elliptic-ovate. Flowers greenish-yellow, in axillary and terminal panicles. Drupe globose, purplish-black.
Chemical Constituents- Bark contains tannins, fatty acids, waxy material. Heart-wood and root contain Sandal oil. Fruits and seeds contain fixed oil. Leaves contain wax, betulinic acid, Beta-sitosterol , glucose, fructose and sucrose. Oil contains ketosantalic acid, exo-norbicycloekasantalal. The oil contains about 90°/, of santanol, an aromatic alcohol
Use - The oil obtained from the heartwood of this tree is medicinal. The oil is used in treatment of dysuria, i.e. to promote and facilitate urination, cystitis (inflammation of bladder), in gonorrhea and cough. The drug is useful in tuberculosis of gall bladder. The wood, ground up with water into a paste, is applied on local inflammations, on forehead in fever, and on skin diseases. Oil from the seed is used on skin diseases. Wood and oil are diuretic, diaphoretic, refrigerant and expectorant