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Sandalwood is a commercially and culturally important plant species belongs to Family
Santalaceae. Genus Santalum consists of 16 species where eight of them are commercially
used as sources of valuable stem oil. In recent times sandalwood has been cultivated as an
agroforesty crop to provide a sustainable solution to global sandalwood demand.
Apart from stem oil, Western Australian scientists and industry identified sandalwood seed oil
as a potential income for the plantation sector during the long crop cycle. Seed oils are
increasingly used for cosmetic, nutritional and medicinal product, thus creating a niche for
specialty oils. Further, an early study revealed that seeds of certain sandalwood species contain
a rare acetylenic fatty acid in its lipid content, known as ximenynic acid. Further studies into
Santalum spicatum (Australian sandalwood) found that the ximenynic acid has antiinflammatory and vasodilator effects. This fatty acid is also reported in S. album, but a
systematic study to evaluate its lipid content and fatty acid profile has not been reported.
Therefore this study is a preliminary attempt to identify and quantify the seed parameters, lipid
content and the fatty acid profile of S. album grown in plantations and home gardens of Sri
Lanka. Trees growing in two different vegetations, i.e., a 4-year old plantation at Beragala (BG)
and mature trees naturally growing in homegardens at Welimada (WM) were selected for this
purpose. 100 seeds were collected from May to June 2015 and coats were removed and the oil
of the kernel was collected by solvent extraction. The key constituents were detected using GCMS methods.
According to the results, the average seed diameter (5.57±0.05 mm) was smaller in WM trees
of homegardens than the seeds of BG (6.26±0.03 mm) though the seed oil content was much
higher (40.34±5.27%) than BG (27.5±6.85%). The ximenynic acid content of BG and WM
were 94.67±1.03% and 91.17±0.65% respectively and those were not statistically significant.
There were no significant differences of palmitic acid (BG=0.31%; WM=0.36%), palmitolenic
acid (BG=0.10%; WM=0.13%); stearic acid (BG=0.42%; WM=0.35%); linoleic acid
(BG=0.38%; WM=0.26%) and linolenic acid (BG=0.13%; WM=0.12%). However, significant
differences were found for oleic acid (BG=2.96%; WM=6.29%) and steroic acid (BG=0.56%;
WM=1.05%).
Further studies are currently under way to identify the variations of the above parameters
covering wider geographical areas and different plantation types. Based on these results Sri
Lankan sandalwood growers could be benefitted by providing sandalwood seeds as a source of
specialty seed oil.
