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Reference

Compendium

Ingredients for spellwork: their formal and folk names, categories, deities and forms, with the sources behind them.

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    313 ingredients

    313 ingredients

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    Botanical Name
    Pterocarpus santalinus

    Red Sandalwood

    Red sandalwood, or red saunders, is the heartwood of Pterocarpus santalinus, a small tree of the legume family, Fabaceae, endemic to the southern Eastern Ghats of South India. Despite its name, which its Indian names share, it is no relation of the fragrant white sandalwood, Santalum album. The tree grows to about eight metres, quickly when young but killed by frost, with leaves of three leaflets, short sprays of yellow flowers and pods holding one or two seeds. Its wood is heavy and dense, reddish or blackish brown outside and a deep blood-red within, banded with paler red, and has only a faint smell. Its chief traditional use was as a dye: in India it was mixed with sappan wood to colour silk, cotton and wool, and pharmacists used its red colouring principle, santalin, to tint tinctures. In China the wood, called zitan, has long been prized for fine furniture, above all under the Qing dynasty. It has a place in traditional herbal medicine too, and Grieve records it as astringent and tonic, used medicinally chiefly in India. Because its timber fetches high prices the species has been overexploited, illegal trade remains a problem, and international trade is controlled under CITES Appendix II. In magic Cunningham assigns it to Venus, to water and to love: it is burned to draw love, and sprinkled about a place to cleanse it of negativity.

    Caution

    The AHPA handbook rates red saunders heartwood Safety Class 1 and Interaction Class A: no known contraindications, precautions or drug interactions. Allergic contact dermatitis from it has been reported. An animal study found that it may change how the body regulates blood sugar, so people with diabetes are advised to watch their blood sugar closely and talk to a qualified healthcare practitioner before using it. Its safety in pregnancy and while breastfeeding has not been conclusively established.

    Forms

    • Powder
    • Wood

    Correspondences

    Elements
    Water
    Celestial Bodies
    Venus
    Colours
    Red

    Folk Names

    • Rakta Chandana
    • Red Sandal
    • Red Sanders
    • Red Santal Wood
    • Red Saunders
    • Rubywood
    • Yerra Chandanam
    • Zitan

    Categories

    • Cleansing
    • Love
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