How is sandalwood essential oil extracted?

Natural products are at the heart of the Robertet Group's activities. For over 200 years, Robertet has been the source of natural ingredients for the flavor, fragrance and beauty industries. Our expertise ranges from the origin - the seed, the leaves and the flowers - to the constantly reinvented industrial know-how: extraction, hydro-distillation, purification, molecular distillation, CO2 extraction, co-distillation, etc. Cultivating "the real thing", making the most of the flowers and the subtlety of the plants, obtaining the most sustainable fragrances... All this is part of Robertet's expertise.?

Sandalwood is a key ingredient in our catalog, and we have a long-standing partnership with our supplier, which enables us to ensure a stable resource for our customers and vertically integrated sourcing at every stage from seed to scent.

Sandalwood is a tree native to the semi-arid regions of central and southwestern Australia, where it is found in the wild spread over an area of more than 250,000 hectares, from the Hamersley Ranges to the south coast. A small tree native to Australia, Santalum spicatum is one of the four species of sandalwood found in Australia.

The Australian sandalwood has the particularity of being a hemiparasite, it lives at the expense of other plants, called host plants, in which it sinks suckers in order to draw certain nutrients, but they remain able to develop independently of any host plant and retain their ability to perform photosynthesis. It can grow in a particularly dry and hostile environment. Its evergreen leaves are oval, grey-green, and its many small flowers are straw-yellow, turning red. The tree produces small, spherical, orange fruits after three years. These trees can live up to 100 years and may take 50 to 70 years to reach full maturity.

History

The history of Sandalwood begins 4000 years ago, first mentioned in Sanskrit and Chinese texts, it has been used for a long time for religious rites, for the manufacture of precious objects and religious icons as well as in architecture for the construction and decoration of numerous temples or for sacred carvings by the Egyptian, Hindu and Buddhist peoples.

Where is sandalwood grown?

First experimentally distilled in 1875, Australian sandalwood oil began to be produced sporadically by a few small Australian distilleries in the 19th century, and it was at this time that the world trade in sandalwood began to develop. Australia became an important exporter, the first European settlers exported up to 14,000 tons of wood per year. The peak in production was in the 1940s when more than 54 tons of EO were produced each year, mainly for medicine.

The Forest Products Commission (FPC) is in charge of the entire sandalwood supply chain, from the management and exploitation of the forests to the delivery of the wood or aggregates to the various players in the sector. The FPC ensures the long-term viability of sandalwood exploitation and its sustainability. It is responsible for the marketing of the harvested wood, its regeneration, and the development of the sector.

In order to perpetuate the natural resources of sandalwood, the harvesting of the wood has been regulated since the 1929s by the Western Australian Sandalwood Control Act. In 2016, a second text came to complete the first, it is the Biodiversity Conservation Act. It sets up a system of licenses and reinforces the sanctions concerning illegal activities on sandalwood. The "permits" for the collection of the wood are managed by the Department of Parks and Wildlife and are allocated according to the quotas established. In 2016, the Western Australian government set a quota of 2,500 tons of sandalwood. This quota is valid for the next 10 years and ensures the sustainability of the sandalwood resource in the region. The FPC allocates the quantities of sandalwood to be collected to the various wood collectors and manages the exclusive contracts with the manufacturers.

What is Sandalwood used for ?

Nowadays it is cultivated in massive plantations. To make the essential oil, the tree is uprooted, the branches separated from the trunk and the roots removed from the ground. It is then reduced into small pieces or granules before being sent to the various distillation units in the sector. The essential oil is mainly developed in the roots and the tree is uprooted during the rainy season so that the roots are filled with the precious essential oil.

We wait nearly 30 years before distilling a tree, which is steam distilled down to the roots so as not to lose a drop of this precious essence. A tree that is more than 60 years old allows us to obtain a superior quality of essential oil of Sandalwood, these qualities are often very expensive.

"We do not use everything in the tree but only the central part of the trunk, the heart being richer in alpha and beta sandalwood. Before cutting the tree, we make sure, by taking and analyzing a core of the trunk, that it will have a sufficiently high yield. (4.5 to 6%) " Robert Sinigaglia

What does Sandalwood smells like?

Sandalwood spicatum has a high alpha- and beta-santalol concentration and a sweet smell that combines the woody and the creamy.?This smell is extremely persistent with a balsamic side. The first olfactory impression differs from the Indian sandalwood because the EO releases a resinous note like the myrrh, then after drying, the bottom note is very similar to him. Many well-known perfumes include sandalwood notes, both in women's and men's perfumes.

Thanks to its olfactory properties, sandalwood is used in aromatherapy against depression, anxiety and insomnia. It facilitates spiritual practices, serene relaxation and open-mindedness. The essential oil is also used in cosmetics against skin infections.