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| Sandalwood tree |
Sandalwood- Alpha and Beta Santalol
Category : Herbs & Supplements
Generic Name : Sandalwood
Botanical name : Santalum album
Family : Santalaceae, the sandalwood family
Family : Santalaceae, the sandalwood family
Synonyms : Alpha-santalol, beta-santalol, East Indian sandalwood, Sandalwood oil, white sandalwood.
Sandalwood
Santalum album is a medium-sized evergreen tree with opposite, leathery leaves. The small tree is native to East Asia but has been known in the sub-continent for millennia. The exact origin of sandalwood is not known. It is found in tropical Asia through Australia to Hawaii Mysore in India
Freshly distilled sandalwood oil has a wonderful odour - an extremely soft, sweet-woody and delicately animal-balsamic odour. For thousands of years it has been one of perfumery's most precious items. It forms the basis of heavy oriental compositions, and creates delightful combinations with rose, violet, tuberose, clove, bergamot, lavender and a lot of other fragrant materials. Sandalwood oil mainly consists of a number of closely related sesquiterpene (a class of terpenes that consist of three isoprene units and have the molecular formula C15H24). Alpha and beta Santalol are constituents of the prized East Indian sandalwood oil. They amount to more than 90 % of the oil, beta-santalol being the most important character impact compound. Müller and Lamparsky (perfumes expert) describe the odour of the two isomers as:
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| Alpha- santalol |
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| Beta- Santalol |
Alpha-santalol --- A relatively weak, slightly woody odour reminiscent of alpha cedrene.
Beta- santolol --- Typically sandalwood odour, with powerful woody, milky and urinous tonality
*To have a 3-D look on the structure of Alpha and Beta Santalol, please visit
http://www.leffingwell.com/chirality/santalol.htm
Uses
Sandalwood oil is used in perfumes, skin and hair preparations. As a cosmetic it has moisturising, astringent, balancing, stimulating properties soothing and anti-bacterial properties on the skin. It can be blended with other plant-derived extracts in hair oils and body lotions and is recommended for dry and aging skin. The oil is also used in perfumery, both in India and Europe . It has a characteristic of sweet, woody odour which is widely used in the fragrance industry. It has excellent blending properties and the presence of a large proportion of high-boiling constituents in the oil also makes it valuable as a fixative for other fragrances. The highly aromatic wood of the sandalwood tree is widely used in South Asia for religious and medicinal purposes and it is a prime source of incense and perfumes.
New artificial Sandalwood odorants
Beta-Santalol was synthesized in the laboratory for the first time in 1990 by an 11-step synthesis. Today, the finest substitutes are derived from campholenic aldehyde, for instance Santaliff ®, produced by IFF (International Flavours & Fragrances Inc.). Javanol ®, by Givaudan, is a new 'cyclomethylene analogue' of this compound. It turns out that substituting the alkene double bonds with the almost isosteric cyclopropane rings creates increased olfactory power and stability. Javanol ® has a strongly diffusive, natural, creamy sandalwood note with rosy shadings. Interestingly, 3,7-dimethyl-7-methoxy-2-octanol also has a fine (but weaker) sandalwood character. It was formerly produced by Bush Boake Allen under the name of Osyrol ® (Osyris is another genus of the sandalwood family).
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Sandalwood trees are the source of an attractive and fragrant wood. The wood is popular for wood carving, and is the source of sandal oil. The oil is valued for perfumery and incense. Sadly, the popularity of sandalwood has led to severe conservation problems. India USA and France
References
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