Rakta Chandana

TRADITIONAL VIEW, WITH SAFETY LIMITS

Hindi name: Lal chandan

What the texts say Rakta Chandana does

• Varnya — improves complexion
• Raktaprasadana — improves the quality of the blood
• Dahaprashamana — relieves burning
• Vranaropana — heals wounds
• Vishaghna — antidote (against poison)

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

Side effects and limits

• Skin irritation in some people on external use

Avoid or ask first: No absolute contraindication is documented here. This is written deliberately rather than left blank.

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

AS THE CLASSICAL TEXTS AND THE API PRESCRIBE

Pterocarpus santalinus is a legume, not a Santalum. CITES Appendix II.

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 and madhura with sheeta virya and katu vipaka.

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.

Kuchandana — bad or lesser sandalwood — records that the tradition knew it was not the same thing as Chandana and named it in relation to it.

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.

Caesalpinia sappan, sappanwood, is the commonest substitute and is itself a legitimate dravya called Pattranga — a paryaya this entry also carries, which is how the two became interchangeable in the market. Dyed wood is sold as red sandalwood, and because the genuine article is prized for colour rather than scent, a dye passes more easily than it would for white sandalwood.

Matched live against the GBIF backbone on 28 September 2026 at 99 per cent confidence. Not related to Chandana, the white sandalwood, which is Santalum album in the Santalaceae — these are two different families sharing an English word. Endemic to a small area of Andhra Pradesh, listed on CITES Appendix II, and among the most smuggled timbers in the world.

A WAY TO REMEMBER IT

Pterocarpus is pteron (wing) + karpos (fruit) — the pod has a broad wing around it. Santalinus means sandal-like, for the wood. Not a Santalum at all; it is a legume, and the Latin says so.

Rakta chandana is described in the Bhavaprakasha Nighantu, where it is distinguished from chandana. 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 santalins, the pigments that give it its colour, along with pterocarpol and related compounds.

• 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.