Abstract

A REVIEW ON RED SANDERS (PTEROCARPUS SANTALINUS LINN.) – PHYTO-CHEMISTRY AND PHARMACOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE

Soundararajan V.*, Ravi Kumar G., Murugesan K. and Chandrashekar B. S.

ABSTRACT

Herbal medicines are often referred as phyto-medicines -- mainly obtained from plant sources like wood, bark leaves, seeds, berries, roots, leaves or flowers for medicinal purposes. Red sanders (Pterocarpus santalinus) wood a highly valued and medicinally important wood which is much in demand in domestic and international market, particularly China and Japan. Red sanders wood of best quality fetches an average price of Rs. 12,00,000/- per ton, but the non-grade wood obtains Rs. 8,00,000/- per ton as per the government rate. Red sanders have a localized distribution in dry and hilly areas of southern part of Andhra Pradesh and northern part of Tamil Nadu. The red dye obtained from the wood is used as colouring agent for textile, medicine and food. The heartwood can accumulate various elements and rare earth elements like strontium cadmium, zinc, copper and uranium. The wood has different uses in traditional and folklore medicines and is used for the treatment of diabetes, prickly heat, skin diseases, ulcers, eye diseases, inducing vomiting, mental aberrations, snake bites, scorpion stings and for various other ailments. The heartwood is known to have antihyperglycaemic activity, antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, anthelmintic, tonic, hemorrhage, dysentery, aphrodisiac, diaphoretic activities and cooling agent. This review discovers the phytochemical and pharmacological effects of the P. santalinus and compiled essential information will be helpful for further investigation. However, the species has remained unexplored for many pharmacological activities claimed. Thus, this paper reviewed about phytochemical and pharmacological/ biological activities.

Keywords: Red sanders, Pterocarpus santalinus, Phytochemistry, Pharmacological, Traditional medicine, Folklore medicines.