I love sandalwood. Adore it. My first experience with a scent that I wanted to make my signature was a sandalwood – it happened at the time to be a fragrance oil, decent enough quality for the early 90s, but nothing compared to the day that some of the real deal came into my hands. The rich wood that smelled of all the best parts of age, faint yellows puffing into my nose and luxuriating down my spine… there are plenty of plants that smell pretty, but few you can experience quite like you can sandalwood.
It wasn’t 
too long after I’d somehow finagled my first full ounce of sandalwood that I found out that it was endangered on nearly all fronts. This bad news, delivered around 2000, hasn’t changed much 8-9 years later, though I admit I’m pleased there’s some sandalwood still around. If I can find a loophole on this whole endangerment policy, I will grab for it. While I won’t use fragrance oils myself, I am glad of them in that they have reduced the damage to endangered species like sandalwood. Imitations are always pale, but when the original is paling because it’s going out of existence, it’s time for me to suck it up and accept a compromise.
There are five plants sometimes referred to by commercial interests as sandalwood. Two are fakes. One is an enigma.
Santalum album
This is known Indian sandalwood, and comes from the Mysore region of South Asia. It is by far the most endangered. I have been misinforming people – it is the Australian sandalwood that is the parasite. This is an actual tree that can’t be harvested until it is 40 to 80 years old. There are all sorts of problems with the overuse and overharvesting of sandalwood, not the least of which is a big problem authorities have with sandalwood thieves.
Santalum spicatum
Australian and a parasite. I’ve never smelled it, although I’ve heard reports it is similar in texture to Indian sandalwood. However, on a chromotography analysis the molecular composition differs quite a bit from the album family. I have also been incorrect in that it is possible to grow this version of the plant sustainably, but I have not found any details on what is involved. Part of the confusion is that some sources list album as parasitic, and others spicatum. I know that one is and one isn’t, but which is which? Since the Australian government does put in a great deal of control on the growth and harvesting of spicatum, it does make it the more responsible purchase if you’re going to pursue sandalwood.
Santalum ellipticum
Hawaiian sandalwood. I’m not finding a lot of data on it. It’s sometimes known as “coast sandalwood” and is pictured in this blog post. According to the encyclopedia Brittanica online, it was the first of the sandalwood family to fall to overharvesting.
Amyris balsamifera
This is not sandalwood, and to me doesn’t even smell like sandalwood. It’s an evergreen commonly grown in Haiti. That’s not to say I don’t love it- I adore it, and I do use it. It’s just frequently labeled and sold as sandalwood when it’s not.
Pterocarpus santalinus
Also not sandalwood, but it tries hard. Chinese in origin, it is distinctive for its red coloring. While it does smell very similar to golden sandalwood, its molecular properties are distinctly different.
Other species that merit further investigation:
Santalum austrocaledonicum
Santalum yasi
There are plans in place for restoring sandalwood to its glory, but these plans take a lot of time – a generation’s worth, before we can see any real benefits. Given that Indian sandalwood has become a social problem of its own because of its scarcity, there may be more problems to resolve than that of simply growing plants so that the plant and the soil lasts.
There’s much more to learn, and I may come back to this over time. Or not – there’s always so much to learn, after all.
Stop by Magickal Realism shop for wood-scented goodies of the safe variety.
