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SANTALUM ALBUM Santalum album

Key Properties

fixative

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🪵 Sandalwood oil 🪵 Oils studied 🪵 Analysis of the oils 🪵 Share of the santalols 🪵 Separation of EO-24 🪵 ISO standards 🪵 CITES and EU trade law 🪵 References
Introduction
Santalum album L.

Species

BinomialSantalum album
Accepted nameSantalum album L.
POWO statusaccepted
FamilySantalaceae
GenusSantalum
IPNI identifierurn:lsid:ipni.org:names:780592-1

Source: Govaerts R. (ed.), World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, accessed on 21/09/2026.

What is sandalwood oil from Santalum album L.?

In the ISO catalogue for ICS 71.100.60, the standard ISO 3518:2025 is titled “Essential oil of sandalwood (Santalum album L.)”, belongs to ISO/TC 54 and stands at stage 60.60.

Which Santalum album oils did Abd Algaffar et al. (2024) study?

Table 6 of Abd Algaffar et al. (2024), “Origin of all EOs tested in this study”, gives Santalum album as the plant of origin of the oil coded EO-24, named “Sandalwood (SW)”. According to the authors, all the essential oils of the initial screening (EO-01 to EO-27, EO-24 among them) were “of commercial origin”. In the same table, the oil coded Ess-EO1, named “Indian SW”, has “Santalum (S.) album” as its plant of origin. Ess-EO1 is one of the sandalwood and related oils Ess-EO1 to Ess-EO7 that, in the authors’ words, “were purchased”. The oil coded doT-EO1, named “SW-19”, has “S. album” as its plant of origin. The oil coded doT-EO5, named “Indonesian SW”, has “S. album” as its plant of origin. The oil coded doT-EO6, also named “Indonesian SW”, has “S. album” as its plant of origin. The oil coded doT-EO8, named “Indian SW”, has “S. album” as its plant of origin. The oil coded doT-EO11, named “Australian SW”, has “S. album” as its plant of origin.

How were the oils analysed?

According to Abd Algaffar et al. (2024), all analyses were carried out on a GC-QTOF MS system (7890 B gas chromatograph coupled to a 7250 quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer), with two column systems, DB-5 (system A) and DB-HeavyWax (system B), each 30 m long, 0.25 mm in diameter, with a 0.25 μm film. The carrier gas was nitrogen (“N2”), the injector was at 220 °C, in split mode with a split ratio of 50:1. On the DB-HeavyWax column (system B), the gas flow was 1.2 mL/min and the temperature program started at 100 °C, then rose by 4 °C/min to 180 °C, by 2 °C/min to 220 °C and by 4 °C/min to 260 °C. For the analysis, the essential oils were diluted with n-hexane at a ratio of 1:2000, and the injection volume was 1 µL. The constituents were characterised by their high-resolution mass spectra (HR MS) and their linear retention indices (LRI), determined on two columns, DB5 and WAX, and identified by searches in the NIST library and by comparison with literature data.

What share of the WAX chromatogram do the santalols take in each oil?

Table 4 of Abd Algaffar et al. (2024) lists the 26 most abundant components of the S. album oils studied, as percent of total peak area in the WAX chromatograms of the GC-QTOF MS analysis; it is not the full list of detected constituents, which the authors give in supplementary Tables S1 and S2.

How much (Z)-β-santalol does each oil contain?

In Ess-EO1 (column “S. album”), (Z)-β-santalol accounts for 22.0 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO1 (column “S. album 19”), (Z)-β-santalol accounts for 20.2 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO5 (column “S. album (ID)”), (Z)-β-santalol accounts for 22.0 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO6 (column “S. album (ID)”), (Z)-β-santalol accounts for 20.7 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO8 (column “S. album (IN)”), (Z)-β-santalol accounts for 21.1 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO11 (column “S. album (AUS)”), (Z)-β-santalol accounts for 20.6 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram.

How much (Z)-epi-β-santalol does each oil contain?

In EO-24 (column “S. album”), (Z)-epi-β-santalol accounts for 3.2 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In Ess-EO1 (column “S. album”), (Z)-epi-β-santalol accounts for 3.4 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO1 (column “S. album 19”), (Z)-epi-β-santalol accounts for 4.5 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO5 (column “S. album (ID)”), (Z)-epi-β-santalol accounts for 3.0 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO6 (column “S. album (ID)”), (Z)-epi-β-santalol accounts for 3.2 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO8 (column “S. album (IN)”), (Z)-epi-β-santalol accounts for 4.0 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO11 (column “S. album (AUS)”), (Z)-epi-β-santalol accounts for 3.8 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram.

How much (E)-α-santalol does each oil contain?

In EO-24 (column “S. album”), (E)-α-santalol accounts for 0.4 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In Ess-EO1 (column “S. album”), (E)-α-santalol accounts for 0.4 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO1 (column “S. album 19”), (E)-α-santalol accounts for 0.3 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO5 (column “S. album (ID)”), (E)-α-santalol accounts for 0.3 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO6 (column “S. album (ID)”), (E)-α-santalol accounts for 0.3 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO8 (column “S. album (IN)”), (E)-α-santalol accounts for 0.3 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO11 (column “S. album (AUS)”), (E)-α-santalol accounts for 0.3 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram.

How much (E)-β-santalol does each oil contain?

In EO-24 (column “S. album”), (E)-β-santalol accounts for 1.6 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In Ess-EO1 (column “S. album”), (E)-β-santalol accounts for 1.7 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO1 (column “S. album 19”), (E)-β-santalol accounts for 1.1 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO5 (column “S. album (ID)”), (E)-β-santalol accounts for 1.7 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO6 (column “S. album (ID)”), (E)-β-santalol accounts for 1.4 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO8 (column “S. album (IN)”), (E)-β-santalol accounts for 1.2 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram. In doT-EO11 (column “S. album (AUS)”), (E)-β-santalol accounts for 1.0 % of total peak area in the WAX chromatogram.

How was the oil EO-24 separated into hydrocarbons and alcohols?

Abd Algaffar et al. (2024) subjected 1.05 g of the oil EO-24 (Santalum album) to column chromatography on 200 g of silica gel 60, eluted with 750 mL of cyclohexane, then with 750 mL of ethyl acetate. The cyclohexane eluates yielded 48 mg of the sesquiterpene hydrocarbon fraction (HF1) and the ethyl acetate eluates 536 mg of the sesquiterpene alcohol fraction (AF1).

Which ISO standards name sandalwood oil from Santalum album L.?

In the ISO catalogue for ICS 71.100.60, ISO 3518:2025, “Essential oil of sandalwood (Santalum album L.)”, stands at stage 60.60 and belongs to ISO/TC 54. In the same copy, ISO 3518:2022, “Essential oil of sandalwood (Santalum album L.)”, is marked “Withdrawn”, at stage 95.99, under ISO/TC 54. ISO 3518:2002, “Oil of sandalwood (Santalum album L.)”, is marked “Withdrawn”, at stage 95.99, under ISO/TC 54. ISO 3518:1979, “Oil of sandalwood (Santalum album, Linnaeus)”, is marked “Withdrawn”, at stage 95.99, under ISO/TC 54.

Is Santalum album listed under CITES or under EU wildlife trade law?

According to the Species+ record of taxon 107394 (Santalum album L.), consulted on 07/10/2026, the field “cites_listing” carries “NC” and the list “cites_listings” is empty. Under Commission Regulation (EU) 2026/1383 of 22 June 2026, whose Article 1 replaces the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 338/97 with the Annex of that regulation, Santalum album appears in the “Annex D” column of that Annex, with the annotation “§4” (common name “Santal blanc” in the French-language version). The regulation defines “§4” as designating all parts and all products, except (a) seeds and pollen and (b) finished products packaged and ready for retail trade. Under its Article 2, the regulation enters into force on the third day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

References