Chandana

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Safed chandan

What the texts say Chandana does

• Dahaprashamana — relieves burning
• Trishnanigrahana — quenching thirst
• Varnya — improves complexion
• Vishaghna — antidote (against poison)
• Hridya — good for the heart
• Raktaprasadana — improves the quality of the blood

What the evidence says. Traditional use is extensive and long recorded. Modern clinical evidence is limited.

Side effects and limits

• Contact allergy to the oil on skin
• Digestive upset

Avoid or ask first: Known allergy to sandalwood oil.

A traditional classification, not a recommendation. The full safety record is below.

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

One of the six of Shadanga Paniya. Santalum album is CITES-listed; the several 'sandalwoods' in the market are different trees.

Reported from Sharangadhara Samhita and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India. Laisha states what the texts prescribe; it does not recommend. No quantity here is adjusted for a particular person — not for agni, koshtha, bala, age, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything already being taken.

Tikta, madhura and kashaya with sheeta virya and katu vipaka. It is the standard example in Dravyaguna of a sheeta and daha-relieving dravya.

These are the actions the classical texts record. They are statements about what the tradition holds, and this library does not restate them as findings about a human body.

Malayaja, born of the Malaya hills, records where the best wood came from. Sheetala names the virya directly and is the property the texts use it for.

Rasa, guna, virya, vipaka and karma are recorded as the classical texts give them, with the text and section named so a student can open the book and check. Where an exact chapter and verse could not be confirmed, this library names the section rather than inventing a number.

This is among the most adulterated and most counterfeited articles in the world, because genuine heartwood is scarce and expensive. Australian sandalwood, Santalum spicatum, and African sandalwood, Osyris lanceolata, are sold as it; so is Erythroxylum monogynum, called bastard sandalwood. Cheap wood scented with synthetic sandalwood fragrance is common, and sandalwood oil sold at a low price is essentially never the real thing. In India the tree has long been subject to state control over felling, which changes who may lawfully sell it.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. A root hemiparasite — it draws part of its nourishment through the roots of a host plant, which is why it cannot be grown alone and is one reason plantations are difficult. Assessed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Santalum is from the Sanskrit chandana itself, through Arabic and Greek. Album means white. The genus name IS the Sanskrit name, worn down by four languages.

Chandana is named among the Dahaprashamana group in the Charaka Samhita and is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu. That is what the tradition holds and where it is written down, not a finding about what the wood does in a body.

Constituents. The heartwood carries an essential oil of which alpha- and beta-santalol are the principal constituents. Oil content rises with the age of the tree.

• This is a study and clinical reference for practitioners and students. The matra and anupana it records are what the classical texts and the Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India PRESCRIBE — Laisha reports them, it does not recommend them. They are not a prescription for any particular person, and they are not adjusted for your age, agni, koshtha, bala, pregnancy, kidney or liver function, or anything else you are already taking. Only a qualified practitioner who has examined you can do that.
• Traditional classification is recorded as what the classical texts say, with the text and the place in it named so it can be checked. It is not restated as a finding about a human body.
• Nothing here replaces a qualified Ayurvedic practitioner or a doctor.