Pterocarpus santalinus L.f.
രക്തചന്ദനം
| Family: | LEGUMINOSAE |
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| Sub-Family: | Papilionoideae | ||||
| English Name: | Red Sandal Wood | ||||
| Synonym: | Lingoum santalinum (L.f.)Kuntze | ||||
| Common Name: | Chenchandanam, Red sanders, Ruby wood | ||||
| Flowering & Fruiting Period: | September - January | ||||
| Distribution: | South east peninsular India | ||||
| Habitat: | Cultivated | ||||
| Uses: | The heartwood is ground to a powder and used as a red food colouring in a range of foods. A paste of the wood is brewed as a tea in the treatment of chronic dysentery and is used to make a treatment for diabetes and as a boost for the immune system. The wood paste is applied externally as a cooling application to boils, inflammatory diseases of the skin, swollen limbs, ophthalmia, sore eyes and headache. Santalin, a red colouring material, is obtained from the dark red to black heartwood. The extracted oil is used as a rejuvenating face cream. The red, fragrant heartwood is used for furniture. The wood powder is used as a skin conditioner in commercial cosmetic preparations. | ||||
| Key Characteristics: | A small to medium-sized, deciduous tree with bark blackish-brown, yielding a deep red latex when cut; heartwood extremely hard, dark purple. Leaves usually imparipinnate, broadly ovate. Flowers yellow, borne a few together in simple or sparingly branched racemes; calyx teeth minute, deltoid. Fruit is a pod. | ||||