Pren sandal coch / Red sanders
- Accession no: T6715
- Collection: Casgliad Coed a Phren wedi ei ddifa Prifysgol Bangor / Bangor University Timber and Damaged Wood Collection
- Name: Red sanders
- Latin Name: Pterocarpus santalinus
- Collector: Gareth Williams Hicksons
- Description: This sample is part of a branch that was dredged up by a trawler off the Great Orme in the 1990's. Vast amounts of red sanders were imported into Britain early in the 19th Century as a source of good red dye for cloth. A small sample of spun and dyed wool is shown here: a piece of wood was ground into chips, the red colour extracted with alcohol, and then the wool boiled in the extract. This source of red dye became outmoded after the discovery of chemical dye processes in the mid-nineteenth century.
The wood is a glorious deep red, heavy and fine grained, which is popular for furniture and ornamental items. Extracts from wood and bark are also used in Indian traditional medicine: they contain a wide range of phenolics, alkaloids and other organic compounds, many of which have yet to be explored for use in modern medicine.
Unfortunately this species has been over-exploited in the wild, so the tree is now on a CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) list: endemic to India, it is now considered to be globally endangered, with illegal logging as a key threat. - Summary Description:
- Copyright: Prifysgol Bangor / Bangor University