Abstract
African sandalwood or East African sandalwood (Osyris lanceolata Hochst. & Steud.; Santalaceae), also known as Nepalese sandalwood (Osyris wightiana var. rotundifolia P.C. Tam), is a hemi-parasitic tree known for its fragrant wood. The essential oil is extracted from the root bark for the perfume industry and different parts of the tree have various medicinal uses. African sandalwood contains an array of phytochemicals such as dihydro-β-agarofuran polyesters, agarofuranases, polyesters, other sesquiterpenes and bisabolanes. This mini-review focuses on the general biology, traditional uses, phytochemical properties, propagation for conservation, and hemiparasitism of O. lanceolata.
Highlights
Osyris lanceolata is a shrub or small deciduous tree that grows to 1-7 m in height depending on the soil type, climatic conditions and genetic variation, and has a wide geographic distribution in Africa from Algeria to Ethiopia and south to South Africa, Europe (Iberian peninsula and Balearic Islands), Asia (India to China), and Socotra
O. lanceolata is distributed in African countries such as Tanzania and Kenya and is frequently found in arid to semiarid areas, primarily on stony and rocky soils (Kokwaro, 2009), or sporadically in rocky sites and along the margins of dry forests, evergreen bushland, grassland, and thickets at an altitude range of 900-2250 m above sea level (Giathi et al, 2011; Kamondo et al, 2012)
B. spiciformis, Casuarina equisetifolia and R. natalensis promoted the early growth of seedlings most efficiently, stimulating plant height and diameter, and root and shoot biomass, which were attributed to, in C. equisetifolia, the host’s nitrogen-fixing potential (Mwang’ingo et al, 2005)
Summary
In East African countries, O. lanceolata constituted an important source of medicine and has other minor uses such as fodder (Mwang’ingo et al, 2010). Several communities in Kenya use O. lanceolata to produce dyes, to treat various ailments, and to brew herbal tea (William, 2010; Kamondo et al, 2012). The antimicrobial activity of hexane, dichloromethane, aqueous methanol and water extracts from the stem, roots and stem bark was shown by Ooko (2008) against five bacteria and three fungal strains. Yeboah and Majinda (2009) studied the free radical-scavenging properties of the powdered root bark of O. lanceolata using n-hexane, chloroform, methanol and 90% methanol/water extracts. Yeboah et al (2010) isolated three dihydro-βagarofuran polyesters (1α,9β-difuranoyloxy-2-oxodihydroβ-agarofuran, 1α,9β-difuranoyloxy-2-oxo-3-enedihydro-βagarofu-ran, and 1α,9β-difuranoyloxydihydro-βagarofuran) from the chloroform extract of the root bark together with two known pentacylic triterpenoids. Agarofuran sesquiterpene polyesters were isolated from root and stem bark extracts (Yeboah and Majinda, 2013). The butanolic extract of the dried aerial parts of the plant yielded a phenyl propanoid, a benzyl alcohol, an iridoid and megastigmanes (Shyaula et al, 2013)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
