Sandalwood oil

Sandalwood oil (Latin oleum santali, French Essence de santal, Eng. Oil of sandal wood ), the essential oil of white sandalwood, is a pale yellow, very thick, scratchy tasting liquid of persistent aromatic odor. The specific gravity is 0.974 to 0.985, the left turn in 100 mm tube -16 to 20 °.

The oil is 90 % or more of the isomeric alcohols, α - and β - santalol, and the balance of a number of compounds of which where the hydrocarbons and Santen santalene, the alcohols and Santenonalkohol Teresantalol, the aldehydes and Nortrizykloeksantalal Santalal that ketones santenone and Santalon and teresantalic and Santalsäure be mentioned. It dissolves in five times its volume of 70% alcohol.

The botanical name of sandalwood Santalum album is, it belongs to the plant family of Santalaceae - Sandelholzgewächse. Its ingredients consist of 90 percent Sesquiterpenolen and sesquiterpenes. The essential oil is obtained by steam distillation.

Sandalwood is probably the most " fake " wood scent, so much is declared as sandalwood oil, which has nothing to do with the sandalwood. In the end, only the botanical name of secure information about what is in the bottle. A well-known essential oil is Amyris balsamifera, which is often declared as West Indian sandalwood. ( Amyris balsamifera For there is no German name, but it belongs botanically to the diamond plants, ie to the same plant family as the citrus scents).

Real sandalwood is a treasure, as the ownership, trading and storage of sandalwood and its products to strict legal regulation of the GOG subject. The annual production of Indian sandalwood is about 1000 tons. This sounds like a lot, but you have to be aware that the global amount of incense sold, perfumes (included almost 80 % of all perfumes sold worldwide sandalwood ), wood products and essential oils exceed the Indian annual production by far. For just a high quality sandalwood oil can be extracted only from trees that are at least 30 years old. The so-called Mysore quality may sometimes be questioned, as only two state-owned distilleries in Mysore and Shimoga deliver this quality. And these two distilleries do not produce as much essential oil, how can we find declared in the trade. Concretely, from Indonesia in 2006, two tons and exported from India between six and ten tons of sandalwood and sold at a price of $ 1,600 per kilogram.

Perfumery: balsamic and sweet, velvety, warm woody scent. Belongs to the meaningful, but also expensive perfume raw materials (provenance Mysore ). Classic Wooden Music Perfume of the " Chypre ", " Fougere " and " Orient ". As an inexpensive variant, the so-called West Indian sandalwood oil or Amyrisöl is used (provenance Western Caribbean ). This fragrance is similar to cedar.