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Chemical composition
The 2 main commercial species of Sandalwood are Indian Sandalwood (Santalum album) and Australian Sandalwood (Santalum spicatum).
Although these oils contain similar components, the concentrations of these components are different, creating two similar but quite distinctive oils.
Australian Sandalwood oil’s main constituents are sesquiterpenes. These are dominated by the two primary sesquiterpene alcohols, alpha-Santalol and beta-Santalol (chemical formula C15H24O).
Australian Sandalwood oil also contains both E,E farnesol which imparts anti-microbial properties as well as alpha-bisabolol a well established anti-inflammatory ingredient.
A typical gas chromatography of Australian Sandalwood is as follows:
The two largest peaks represent alpha-Santalol and beta-Santalol while the three largest peaks between these are epi-alpha-bisabolol, z-alpha (trans) bergamatol and epi-beta-Santalol respectively.
