Sandalwood

Sandalwood is the scented heartwood of Santalum album, a small evergreen tropical tree of the family Santalaceae, also known as white or Indian sandalwood. It is native to India, Java and the Lesser Sunda Islands, the Philippines and Western Australia, and Austronesian sailors carried it into South Asia along the ancient spice routes, where it had become naturalised in the south of India by at least 1300 BCE. The tree is partly parasitic, drawing nutrients from the roots of neighbouring plants. Only the yellow-brown heartwood is fragrant; it takes about ten years to develop its scent and some twenty before it is worth harvesting. Heavy cutting has left wild trees vulnerable to extinction, India has banned export of the timber, and buyers are urged to choose sustainably harvested stock. Across India, China and Southeast Asia the wood and its oil have been treated as sacred and burned in temples and censers; they have also served in cremation and embalming, in carving and in perfume. In magical practice sandalwood is burned for protection, healing and driving out harmful spirits, mixed with frankincense for seances and Full Moon rituals, and written on and burned to send a wish on its way.