SANDALWOOD OIL CAN BE A MIRACULOUS TACKLE ON SKIN AGING, SKIN APPEARANCE AND WRINKLE SKIN-A REVIEW

Abstract

Sandalwood oil has been utilizing for a variety of purposes throughout history, with its integration into foods, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products. It’s now being increasingly recognized for effects on wrinkle skin. In this review article, a brief analyze has been discussed on various skin disorders especially skin ageing, skin appearance and wrinkle skin & description of sandalwood oil and use of sandalwood oil by topical skin applications. Thus, it focuses on the therapeutic benefits of sandalwood oil according to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory action, it is to describe the Nitric Oxide (NO) scavenging activities and cell regulatory properties on wrinkle skin.

Full text

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SANDALWOOD OIL CAN BE A MIRACULOUS TACKLE ON SKIN AGING, SKIN
APPEARANCE AND WRINKLE SKIN – A REVIEW
Dr. Md. Shahinoor Rahman Dulal1*, Mohammad Abu Taher2 and Hasib Sheikh2
1HamdardGıda, İthalat, İhracatveDışTicaret Ltd. Şirketi. GüneşliBağlarMah. KoçmanCaddesi, GülSokak No: 27, K: 3
Bağcılar - Istanbul, Turkey.
2Faculty of Unani and Ayurvedic Medicine, Hamdard University Bangladesh. Hamdard City of Science, Education &
Culture, Gazaria, Munshiganj-1510, Bangladesh.
Article Received on 07/11/2018 Article Revised on 28/11/2018 Article Accepted on 19/12/2018
INTRODUCTION
Skin aging is a part of a natural human “aging mosaic”
which becomes evident and follows different trajectories
in different organs, tissues and cells with time. While the
aging signs of internal organs are masked from the
ambient “eyes,” the skin provides the first obvious marks
of the passing time.[1]
The skin is well known to be the first element
influencing human socio-cultural relationship. How we
exteriorly look is very important for self-accepting and
for the social life. The skin is where emotions take place
and the expression of health and wellness status. The
color, the opacity and the hydration levels give a signal
of the psychophysical status. The wrinkle is a furrow on
the skin surface. It is due to a progressive collagen loss,
causing a low elasticity of the tissue and to a lower
cellular reproduction.[2]
The aging of our skin can be discussed as two entities:
chronological and environmentally influenced ageing.[3]
Clinically, chronological and environmentally-influenced
ageing show skin changes including thinning, loss of
elasticity, roughness, wrinkling, increased dryness, and
impairment of the skin barrier. Chronological aging
depends on a decrease in cellular replacement
(senescence) of the epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis,
but also from Impairment in the remodeling of the
extracellular matrix (e.g., collagen bundles and elastic
fibers).[4] The second type of skin aging is mediated by
extrinsic factors such as UV radiation, air pollution,
smoking, changes in external temperature, and other
agents of skin aging exposome.[5]
Santalum album L. (Santalaceae) commonly known as
Indian Sandalwood is one of the oldest and precious
sources of natural fragrance with immense medicinal and
commercial significance. S. album has been grown in
India for the last 25 centuries and esteemed all over the
world for its sweet, long-lasting and medicinally valued
fragrant oil. Sandalwood and the essential oil derived
from sandal heartwood have been used in various
traditional systems of medicine, like Ayurveda, Siddha
and Unani medicine in the treatment and prevention of
wide range of ailments. The versatile therapeutic and
healthcare importance of sandalwood is attributed to the
rich source of phytochemicals particularly
sesquiterpenes.[6]
Sandalwood oil is obtained from the heartwood of the
plant. This volatile oil contains about 90% alpha- and
betasantalols with a variety of minor components
including sesquiterpene hydrocarbons (about 6%). The
santalols are responsible for the pleasant odor of
sandalwood, although 2-furfuryl pyrrole also may
contribute an effect. The seeds yield about 50% of a
viscid, dark red, fixed oil. This oil contains stearolic acid
and santalbic acid. Gas chromatography fingerprinting of
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WORLD JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL
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*Corresponding Author: Dr. Md. Shahinoor Rahman Dulal
HamdardGıda, İthalat, İhracatveDışTicaret Ltd. Şirketi. GüneşliBağlarMah. KoçmanCaddesi, GülSokak No: 27, K: 3 Bağcılar - Istanbul,
Turkey.
ABSTRACT
Sandalwood oil has been utilizing for a variety of purposes throughout history, with its integration into foods,
cosmetics, and pharmaceutical products. It’s now being increasingly recognized for effects on wrinkle skin. In this
review article, a brief analyze has been discussed on various skin disorders especially skin ageing, skin appearance
and wrinkle skin & description of sandalwood oil and use of sandalwood oil by topical skin applications. Thus, it
focuses on the therapeutic benefits of sandalwood oil according to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory action, it
is to describe the Nitric Oxide (NO) scavenging activities and cell regulatory properties on wrinkle skin.
KEYWORDS: Sandalwood oil, antioxidant effects, anti-inflammatory properties, Nitric Oxide (NO) scavenging
activities, Skin aging and wrinkle skin.

Dulal et al. World Journal of Pharmaceutical and Medical Research
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sandalwood oils has been used successfully in light of
the complex nature of the components of the oils.
Sandalwood is mainly used as coolant, and also sedative
effect and astringent activity, making it useful as
disinfectant in genitourinary and bronchial tracts,
diuretic, expectorant and stimulant. The sweet powerful
and lasting odor makes Sandalwood oil useful in
perfume industry. The same is also used as tonic for
heart, stomach liver, anti-poison, fever, and memory
improvement and as a blood purifier. Various uses
mentioned in Ayurveda system about sandalwood are in
treatment of various other ailments like diarrhea with
bleeding intrinsic hemorrhage bleeding piles, vomiting,
poisoning, hiccoughs initial phase of pox, urticaria, eye
infections and inflammation of umbilicus.[7,8]
What is skin aging?
There are two main processes that induce skin aging:
intrinsic and extrinsic. A stochastic process that implies
random cell damage as a result of mutations during
metabolic processes due to the production of free
radicals is also implicated. Extrinsic aging is caused by
environmental factors such as sun exposure, air
pollution, smoking, alcohol abuse, and poor nutrition.
Intrinsic aging reflects the genetic background and
depends on time. Various expressions of intrinsic aging
include smooth, thinning skin with exaggerated
expression lines. Extrinsically aged skin is characterized
by photo damage as wrinkles, pigmented lesions, patchy
hypopigmentations, and actinic keratoses. Timely
protection including physical and chemical sunscreens,
as well as avoiding exposure to intense UV irradiation, is
most important.[9]
Changes in skin appearance
Dry skin
Dry, scaly skin is frequently seen in the elderly. The
degradation or loss of skin barrier function with
increasing age is partly accountable for this
manifestation. The recovery of damaged barrier function
has been demonstrated to be slower in aged skin,
resulting in greater susceptibility to developing dryness.
This is a multifactorial process due, in part, to lower lipid
levels in lamellar bodies and a decrease in epidermal
filaggrin. Increased trans-epidermal water loss (TEWL)
is also exhibited by aged skin, leaving the stratum
corneum more susceptible to becoming dry in low-
humidity environments. In addition to dryness, aged skin
is often characterized by roughness, wrinkling, skin
pallor, hyper- or hypopigmentations, laxity, fragility,
easy bruising and benign neoplasms.[10]
Benign neoplasms in ageing skin
With age, the appearance and surface texture of skin can
change dramatically, as represented by the development
of acrochordons (skin tags), cherry angiomas, seborrheic
keratoses, lentigos (sun spots) and sebaceous
hyperplasias, among other lesions and cutaneous
alterations. Patients of dermatologists and plastic
surgeons often request removal of these benign
neoplasms. Various destructive treatment modalities are
available, including hyfrecation and sundry laser
options.[10]
Wrinkles classification[11]
The wrinkles are distinguished in
 Texture
The skin, even the infants’ one, show on its surface a
texture composed by depressions or groves, which
intersecting form small rhomboid area.
 Expressional
These are those lines forming on the face where skin has
to adapt to the facial muscles movements. Indeed, the
facial muscles find their insertion beneath the skin.
Consequently, the skin moves together with them. These
cranes are visible at the age of 30, but they do not
increase in number during the years; instead, they
become deeper. Their direction is perpendicular to the
muscular fibers direction.
 Joint lines
They are located in the scheletric articulations place and
necessary for the natural movements of the skin.
 Grooves from muscular skin laxity
They normally appear as part of ageing process, due to
the loss of elasticity of collagen texture. Therefore,
dermis is no more able to contrast the gravity and the
muscle tissue is reduced. This kind of groove appears
normally on the face as the natural fall of the skin. The
treatment in this case is just surgical.
 Lines from sleeping
These folds are created from the lateral position during
the sleep. They appear later on the photo damaged skin.
How Wrinkles Develop[12]
The skin is made up of multiple layers of cells that are
constantly going through self shedding and regeneration
once every 30 days or so in repeated cycles. The layers
can be broadly divided into two sections - the top
epidermis and the underlying dermis.
Histological studies of the skin show that a wrinkle is
formed following a series of major cellular changes:
During the sub-clinical phase of aging (from age 35-45),
there is a gradual and progressive slowing of cellular
turnover and regeneration. This results in the skin getting
thinner. As a result, the normally undulating ridge-like
dermal-epidermal interface (DEI) becomes flatter. This
flatness reduces the surface area of nutritional exchange
between the underlying dermis on the bottom and the
epidermis on top.
Reduced nutrition to the epidermis from aging is one
factor that causes cellular exhaustion and weakness.
Without proper nutrition to the epidermis, cellular
metabolism of the epidermal cell is slowed. Furthermore,

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the transportation of certain unwanted byproducts of
cellular metabolism such as free radical is reduced. The
accumulation of such free radicals within the cell can
lead to undesirable mutational damages in the cell and
ultimately cancer.
The adhesion between in the DEI is normally supplied by
collagen IV (a multi-sheet structure or basal layer) and
collagen VII (anchored to the sheets structure). The
progressive loss of nutrients to this area slows the
circulation of the messengers that serve to promote the
neo-synthesis process of such collagen. A vicious cycle
is set up. Without an optimal amount of collagen, the
skin sags even more, propagating the dearth of nutrients.
Paradoxically, matured aging skin contains more elastin,
which the body uses to fill in the empty space left by the
deficiency of collagen. Such elastin, unfortunately, is
fragmented, calcified, and contains excessive lipids.
In addition to the loss of skin thickness due to lack of
collagen support, the aging skin is looser and lacks
elasticity. These two properties are hallmarks of
wrinkles.
This process of aging and appearance of wrinkles is
accelerated during the clinical phase of aging (age 45 and
higher). By age 50, very few women can escape
wrinkles. The difference only lies in the degree of the
blemish.
Skin Anti-aging Approaches[13]
The skin anti-aging strategies attempted to reverse the
dermal and epidermal signs of photo- and chronological
aging can be grouped under the following approaches
(Table 1).
Table 1: Skin anti-aging approaches.
Cosmetological care
Daily skin care, correct sun protection, aesthetic non-invasive
procedure
Topical medical agents or topical agents
Antioxidants, cell regulators
Invasive procedures
Chemical peelings, visible light devices, intense pulse light (IPL),
ablative and non ablative laser photo-rejuvenation, radiofrequency
(RF), injectable skin biostimulation and rejuvenation, prevention of
dynamic wrinkles, correction of static, anatomical wrinkles,
restoration (redistribution) of fat and volume loss, skin
augmentation and contouring.
Systemic agents
Hormone replacement therapy, antioxidants.
Avoiding of exogenous factors of
ageing, correction of life style and
habits.
Smoking, pollution, solar UV irradiation, stress, nutrition, diet
restriction and alimentary supplementation, physical activity,
control of general health.
Plant Description of Sandalwood
The plant was mainly exploited for fragrant sandalwood
oil obtained by steam distillation. A small evergreen
glabrous tree with slender drooping branches the
sapwood white and odorless. The heartwood yellowish
brown strongly scented. Leaves of dimension 3.8 – 6.3
by 1.6 to 3.2 cm; are elliptic lanceolate, subacute
glabrous and entire thin base acute; petioles 1 – 1.3 cm
long slender flowers, brownish purple induorous, in
terminal and auxiliary paniculate cymes shorter than
leaves. Perianthcampanulated limb of 4, valvate
triangular segments stamens 4, exerted, alternating with
4 rounded obtuse scales. Drupe globose 1.3 cm diameter.
Purple black; endocarp hard ribbed fruit concealed about
size of pea, spherical crowned by rim like remains of
perianth tube, smooth, rather flesh, nearly black, seed
solitary.[14]
Phytochemical Investigation of Sandalwood oil
The volatile oil extracted from Santalum album L
derived from the roots and heartwood is colorless to
yellowish, viscous (ref. index-1.499-1.506, specific
gravity 0.962-0.985 opt, rotation -19-200) liquid with
peculiar heavy sweet odor, the chief constituents of the
oil is santalol (90% or more) a mixture of two primary
sesquiterpene alcohols, C15H24O viz, α-santalol (bp-
1661670C) and β-santalol(b.p-177-1780C) in which the
α– form predominates.[1,3] More than hundred
constituents of sandalwood oil in categories of tannins,
terpenes, resins and waxes have been reported which
include such as hydrocarbons- santene (C9H14),
nortricyclo-ekasantalene (C11H18), α- and β- santalenes
(C15H24), alcohols-santenol (C9H16O), teresantalol
(C10H16O), aldehydes- nor-tricyclo-kasantalal
(C11H16O).[15]
Sandalwood oil restores and rejuvenation of skin
aging & wrinkle skin by the following ways
Antioxidant properties
The phytochemical and pharmacological investigations
proved the presence of antioxidant principles that justify
their traditional medicinal values.[16] It has been reported
to have nitrous oxide scavenging activity and DPPH
antioxidant activity.[17] Anthocyanicpigment cyanidin-3-
glucoside from S. album was shown to be antioxidant
and nutritionally important.[18] A comparative study
shown that in vitro grown callus cells demonstrated
comparable antioxidant activities with sandalwood oil,
using nine in vitro antioxidant tests.[19]

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Sandalwood oil increased glutathione S-transferase
(GST) activity and acid soluble sulfhydryl (SH) levels in
the liver of adult male Swiss albino mice in oral doses of
5 and 15 µL in 10 and 20 days, respectively.[20]
Methanolic extracts of sandalwood demonstrated acetyl
cholinesterase inhibitory (180 µg mL-1) and DPPH and
super oxide free radical scavenging activities (IC50
values of 160-191 µg mL-1) in albino mice.[21]
The Evaluation of Nitric Oxide Scavenging Activity
The extracts of Indian medicinal plants including S.
album were examined for their possible regulatory effect
on nitric oxide (NO) levels using sodium nitroprusside as
an NO donor in vitro. Most of the plant extracts
demonstrated direct dose dependant scavenging on NO
and exhibited significant activity.[22]
Anti-inflammatory property
Treat dry skin conditions such as eczema with East
Indian Sandalwood, as it is an anti-inflammatory
condition, as well as an emollient so it will take the heat
and agitation away from the skin, and help produce
healthy skin cells. Sandalwood oil relieves itching and
inflammation of the skin, and is most effective in
relieving dehydrated skin, making it great for anti-ageing
skincare - and the astringent action has a great toning
effect and is also used with great results in oily skin
conditions and to prevent the skin from forming ugly
scars and for fighting dry eczema.[23]
Santalum album possessed anti-inflammatory and
antiulcer activities as evidenced by its significant
inhibition in the carrageenan induced paw edema, cotton
pellet induced granuloma, as well as pylorus ligation
induced ulcer. These findings could substantiate the
inclusion of this plant in the effective management of
inflammatory disorders like ulcer in traditional system of
medicine. The in vitro antioxidant and in vivo analgesic
and anti-inflammatory activities in mice were established
for methanolic extracts of sandalwood.[24]
Cell regulatory property
Applied to the skin, sandalwood oil is soothing, cooling
and moisturizing and primarily used for dry skin
conditions caused by loss of moisture and skin
inflammations. It may be used to relieve eczema and
psoriasis and for the treatment of oily skin and acne. The
emollient properties of sandalwood render it useful in
skin care. Sandalwood oil is soothing, cooling and
moisturizing for dry skin conditions caused by dryness
and treatment of oily skin and acne.[25-27]
Metabolic property
Sandalwood oil reported to demonstrate changes in
neonatal hepatic xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes in
suckling mouse pups on trans-mammary exposure. It is
further observed that sandalwood oil and its constituents
passed through milk and modified the hepatic xenobiotic
metabolizing enzymes such as increased hepatic
glutathione-S-transferase, glutathione reductase and
glutathione peroxidase activities, with concomitant
increase in hepatic cytochrome b5 and acid soluble
sulphydryl contents and lowering of hepatic cytochrome
P 450 content.[28]
Method of uses of sandalwood oil
 To reduce face wrinkle, Take a large bowl of
steaming water and add 1-2 drops of Sandalwood
oil. Keep your face over the bowl with cover head
by a towel for 10 minutes.
 Massage few drops of sandalwood oil every corner
of body.
 To restore silky and moisture of hair apply few
drops of sandalwood oil in hair.
 Sandalwood oil can be mixed with your bath water
to help you relax and better sleep.
 Add a few drop of sandalwood oil to your milk to
boost up your energy.
 Add few drops of sandalwood oil with lotion or
cream to remove dry and itchy skin.
 Add several drops of sandalwood oil to coconut or
other favorite oil and apply to the hair to help with
dryness.
 To relax body sandalwood rubbed on the skin.
CONCLUSIONS
Topical applications of sandalwood oil may have
different effect on the skin according to their
composition. The constituents of sandalwood oil may
restore and rejuvenate wrinkle skin by several
mechanisms: (i) antioxidative activities; (ii) anti-
inflammatory properties; (iii) Nitric Oxide (NO)
scavenging activities (iv) cell regulatory properties and
(v) metabolic properties. Further studies can be added to
allow for better understanding of sandalwood oil, with
the potential to develop dermatological treatments and
skin care products using this oil.
Conflict of interest: We have no conflict of interest.
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