If there is one tradition that I completely love and follow religiously, it is using sambrani smoke also called benzoin resin in English. Lighting Sambrani smoke is an ancient tradition that has been followed for many years in Indian due to it’s amazing benefits. We use it for drying our hair, for babies and also for warding off mosquitoes! When I say sambrani, I am referring to paal sambrani not computer sambrani.
What Is Sambrani?
It is a balsamic resin obtained from several trees of the family Styracaceae. The resin is dried, powdered and sold in the markets, either as a powder or in blocks. Sambrani usage has been in the culture for many years and in fact every South Indian home will have sambrani holders that will be more than 100 years old.
Many countries use sambrani, in Arab countries they use it directly and in some countries they use it in incense. You can also use it instead of sandalwood shavings as a base for making incense cones. To light up sambrani smoke, coal is collected in sambrani holder and the sambrani powder is sprinkled over it.
Sambrani is produced mainly in Asia in several countries like Thailand, Java, Sumatra, Indonesia and Vietnam. The trees by themselves does not produce any resin, they are produced after deep incisions are made in the bark. Farmers who grow benzoin trees usually pick a spot in the forest usually near already existing benzoin trees. They pick seedlings from the best resin producing tree and when the tree reaches eight years they start tapping for the resin. The resin can be extracted for almost 60 years!
Sambrani Common Names
It is called Benzoin Resin In English, Loban in Hindi and Sambrani is the Tamil name.
Types of Sambrani
There are two types of benzoin gum commonly available, one is called “Benzoin Gum Siam” got from Styrax Tonkinensis and the other is “Benzoin Gum Sumatra” got from Styrax Benzoin. In the local markets we get two types of Sambrani, one is called “Paal Sambrani” and the other is “Computer Sambrani”. Paal Sambrani is the naturally occurring resin (one of the two) and computer Sambrani refers to a mixture of ingredients in which Sambrani is one of the ingredients, I prefer the Paal sambrani.
a. Benzoin Gum Siam
It is externally reddish yellow in colour and internally milky white. It has got a pleasant odor with a distinct note of vanilla so it is used to flavor artificial vanilla and chocolate products. It is also used in pharmaceutical preparations and in perfumes. It comes in four different grades which range from large shaped resin to almost fine powder.
b. Benzoin Gum Sumatra
Sumatra has reddish to greyish brown colour and has strong styrax like odor which is different from Siam variety. It also comes in different grades and is mainly used in soap and detergent fragrances.
Sambrani Chemical Components
Benzoin Gum Siam
The major constituent of benzoin siam are benzyl benzoate, benzoic acid, methyl benzoate and allyl benzoate.
Benzoin Gum Sumatra
Gum sumatra contains benzyl benzoate, styrene, cinnamic acid and benzyl cinnamate.
How is Sambrani Collected?
The bottom of the tree is tapped and the resin is collected first and then the farmer climbs 2 meters above the tapped part and the resin is collected again, this process is repeated. To collect, the bark of the tree is cleaned with a scraper to prevent the resin mixing with impurities when it flows out.
Then 5 small wounds in four sides of the tree about 2cm deep is made. the resin flows under the bark and outside. It is usually collected during rainy season or in the early mornings when it is cold so the resin does not melt while collecting which results in resin getting dirty.
Sambrani Health Benefits:
Sambrani Health Benefits:Styrax benzoin has many uses, the tincture is used treating throat infection and cold sores when used as a mouth wash. Benzoin resin is also used for treating dry skin, wounds and inflammation. Since it has anti inflammatory properties, it is used to relieve muscle pain, gout and arthritis.
Benzoin oil extracted from the resin also has wonderful health benefits, it is used as a sedative and relaxant. It is also used in skin care to treat wound and scars and since it is an expectorant, it is used to treat respiratory problems. It is also used for treating digestive problems and it is a diuretic too.
Sambrani Incense Benefits:
Every once in a while when you have plenty of time, take an oil bath, play some divine music, light up sambrani and dry your hair with sambrani smoke. Then you will understand why I am going on and on about sambrani so much 🙂
1. Sambrani Calms Us:
2. Sambrani For Hair:
3. Sambrani For Babies:
4. Sambrani For Mosquitoes:
Where To Buy Sambrani?
2 Ways To Use Sambrani At Home
1. To Dry Hair:
Use sambrani as such for drying your hair. When using it, keep a straw basket above the sambrani holder after sprinkling the sambrani powder. The fumes will seep through the pores in the straw basket, now you can dry your hair with the fumes. Keeping the straw basket prevents accidents and it also lets out fumes evenly.
2. To Purify The Air :
For using it around the home, take fresh neem leaves, dry and powder them in a mixer. Now take sambrani, kungilium and add to the powdered neem leaves and powder together well. It need not be very fine, even if it is a bit coarse it is ok. To use, sprinkle the powder over hot coal and take it around the home.
How To Use Sambrani Holder?
To use sambrani holder, collect hot coal in sambrani holder and sprinkle little bit sambrani powder, it will start emitting smoke. If you don’t have coal, you can also burn coconut shell in the stove and take it in the sambrani holder. Once the smoke stops, add some more sambrani powder. Also try to fan the coal periodically to prevent it from loosing it’s heat.
Sambrani Side Effects:
If you are allergic to smoke, I would suggest not using sambrani smoke and also don’t place the smoke too close to babies. I would also suggest buying and using good quality sambrani to prevent any side effects.
NOTES:
- Once you open up a sambrani packet, store it in airtight box.
- Sambrani holders are available every where, buy ones with a long handle else it will be difficult to hold it.
- Usually sambrani holders are made of brass.
- Light up sambrani at least weekly once and fill the whole house with the smoke. It will ward of mosquitoes, make the whole house smell divine.
- Even for headaches, sambrani smoke is very good.
- I will give full details about kungilium in future posts.
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Ramya it is an intregal part of bengali culture too. It amazes me how similar West Bengal and southern states are. We call it dhuno and our Durga pujo will be incomplete without it. Some dhuno infused agarbattis are also available in market for home worship but they some how fail to make the cut. my mum has a easy substitute for the burning coal. She uses( rather used) coconut fibre or coir.Will try out with coal too.
i love Sambrani! i use it for my pujas, as a bug repellent, use during Durga Puja (Bengali use it as Dhunuchhi). I use for South indian prayers and as well as Bengali prayers!
I guess Sambrani just warms up the place with a soothing fragrance. And thatz the reason people uses to dry their hair rather quickly. It might chase the mosquitoes for a while but the mosquitoes promptly return. So thatz just a temporary benefit.Someone said it helps with seasonal flu symptoms, kills airborne virus and bacterias and helps protect people of the same household to escape from further infection when one of them has already got it. Is that a myth? or is that true?
It mostly depends on the ingredients used along with sambrani. For example if it is mixed with neem leaves like mentioned in the post, it keeps the mosquitoes away for quite some time especially when done in the evenings (when the mosquitoes are plenty) and the smoke also prevents people from all the infections like you mentioned to an extent…
thanks shared
Is sambrani powder easily available in stores?Is this powder pure, I mean without any chemicals?Do you light the store bought powder or do you source the raw material and powder it yourself?If you do from where do you source it?
We can get sambrani powder easily in all the shops. I always prefer to get the sambrani that comes in chunks without any additions and is generally very pure..
Hi Ramya, Is sambrani extracted from any plant or it prepared using chemicals?
Hi, Sambrani is a resin obtained from the trees belonging to the Genus Styrax….
how to identify pure sambrani powder? yours is looking grayish white but i'm seeing powder sold that''s dark brown color. for how long is it good for?
Sabrani lasts well for years. The best way to source good sambrani powder is to buy it from government khadi shops….
how to tell its still good for use?
Check for the fragrance of the sambrani, if it still smells fresh you can continue using it…
yet what is the true color of sambrani?
Sambrani is usually brown in color…
is sambrani suggested to babys or not?
You can use sambrani smoke for babies but please don't smoke the sambrani too close to the baby……
where to get the pure quality is it charcoal, coal or wood ash we sprinkle the sambrani on? i asked my temple to use it but they are not able to locate the materials needed to sprinkle it over on that is pure quality. they told the one they used is not good quality and not correct one for the sprinkling.
I am not sure where you get good quality charcoal for burning sambrani incense. Here in our village since we use our traditional wood burners, we use the coal from it for burning sambrani…
can you explain what you mean by traditional wood burners and how you obtain the charcoal from it? which specific tree wood you use that is safe?
hello..i read your article completly and it was very useful…..can you please tell me where can i get the safest sambrani …….
Hi Sushma, try for sambrani in government khadi shops….
what is hindi translation of sambrani.
I tried searching for the hindi name and in Hindi language also sambrani is mostly referred to as sambrani dhoop…
Is it not the resin from the Saal tree?
It is called as Loban
Hi, how do I light sambrani without coal? I have the brass spoon and the powder but no coal. :-/
It is hard to light sambrani without coal…
If you have the outer thick wood like cover of the coconut burnt. You will the coal you can use that to burn sambarani to produce smoke.
Hello Ramya, I really enjoyed your article. I too love the smell of Sambrani. It truely makes you feel positive and ready for prayers. I am just wondering, can you use it to bless/cleanse your home of negative energies etc? And to bless family members?
Sambrani does eradicate the negative energy that is why sambrani smoke is always used in all holy places and so does guggul resin, you can read about it in the blog too…
Thank you Ramya.
Hello Ramya, I am told that burning sambrani at home mixed with little of white mustard seeds is auspicious. Any comment on this ?Lakshmi Gopal, Bangalore
Hello sir, we have never used white mustard seeds along with sambrani smoke but burning sambrani in any form is auspicious as it is cleansing and purifying…
Thank you for writing this article, I was looking for ways to eliminate negative energy and bring positiveness at home and came across the usage of frankincense and I was sure we in India would have something better as our traditions are so meaningful and landed on your blog. I am in the USA now and I see many people practicing Yoga and other Indian traditions to stay calm and healthy, I feel so proud at the same time feel bad that I did not realize our values when I was there. You are doing a good job in creating this awareness.. All the best 🙂
Thanks lot….:)
HiI wonder how to burn sambrani without coal ?That little quantity of coal is not available .Coconut husk is not great instigator of fire .Any ideas pl
Since in cities we are not able to get coals, my mom used to keep an empty coconut shell in the gas stove and as soon as it catches fire remove from stove and keep it on sambrani holder.. it burns completely and give u good amount of coal for sambrani… But be cautious while doing this as it is very risky..
I am sorry I don't know any other way to light up sambrani other than coal…
MademI am sri lanka and i like to make sambrani at home but finding raw materials are very difficult in here.please help me. Reply me on roshan211info@gmail.com
Sambrani is a natural resin and we can't make it at home. If what you are referring to is computer sambrani, I don't have any idea about the exact recipe. I just know that they use charcoal, saw dust along with sambrani and few other ingredients….
what specific tree does charcoal come from for the sambrani…a charcoal in which no carbon monoxide or unsafe situation is produced?many hardwood charcoals i have come across produce carbon monoxide and warn it should not be used indoors.
In our village usually waste wood is collected and made into charcoal. Since I live in a coconut farm, we always use coconut husks that is found in the farm for smoking sambrani ….
1. traditionally which woods from which tree are safe? 2. what exactly is done to your coconut husks to make it a matter we can burn sambrani over? or you just set the raw unprocessed husk on fire then sprinkle it over?
You can use any wood for burning sambrani. We light up the dried coconut husks along with dried coconut leaves so it lights easily for boiling water in huge pots. Once it burns and starts smoldering we take it in sambrani holder and sprinkle sambrani…
i think naatu karuvelam was used only. not seemai karuvelam. seemai not good.
can we light a small piece of pasu varatti, blow out the fire, let it smoke then sprinkle it over?
usually the agarbatti are small in size you can burn completely if the smoke is too much you open your windows if you house is big the one single bathi will be best. Check out more information here if you want http://sarathi.com/
Hi Ramya,I am interested in trying this out at home. I will take the coal from the clothes iron person/ dhobi. Could you please explain the procedure to light the coal at home? Will it be possible over stove?Thank you for taking the time out to reply!Best!
Hi Ramya,I am interested in trying this out at home. I will take the coal from the clothes iron person/ dhobi. Could you please explain the procedure to light the coal at home? Will it be possible over stove?Thank you for taking the time out to reply!Best!
Sambrani keeps the mosquitoes away !! we should all switch to sambrani instead off the chemical mosquito repellants !!
I have asthma. Do I use sambrani? will it aggravate my condition?
We have a new born baby at home and my mother who has used sambrani for me and my brother n sister when we were babies ,continues to use it for this new born baby now after it takes bath but my sister in law who thinks it will affect the babies health by suffocating and doesn't want my mother to do it. I just want to know is my mother who has done it for years is correct or my sister in law is correct who is assuming n interpreting things ??? Plz tell
My name is abhijit purohit from Bangalore.my number is 9886604238
My name is abhijit purohit from Bangalore.my number is 9886604238
Hello RamyaSuch a wonderful blog. I accidentally came across it. Thanks for sharing such useful information.
Hello RamyaSuch a wonderful blog. I accidentally came across it. Thanks for sharing such useful information.
is sambrani and kungilium are same
Hello,Thought of sharing this info with you. Sivachaariyaar Dr.B.Rajasekhar answers viewers questions mon – fri 10.30 pm on Sri sankara tv channel- programme Siva ragasiyam. He happened to give names of ingredients for preparing saambraani – y/day 7th february 2018, used in olden days, when there were no mirrors, newspapers etc,,, He said acc to saasthras, fumes from saambraani using these items eradicates any invisible harmful bacterias & virus, gives long life and brings prosperity / wealth. He added, goddess mahalakshmi likes this aromatic fumes whereas lord yama dislikes sound of conch and these fumes…. & the timings for using saambraani twice daily is between 4.30 to 6 in the morning and 4.30 to 6 in the evening… The items are exactly in the order as told by the sivachaariyaar.1) Kadugu 2) Perungaayam3) Kothamalli4) Adhimaduram5) Karun kungiliyam குங்கிலியம் (black kunguliyam) 6) Venn kungiliyam வெள்ளை குங்கிலியம் (white kunguliyam)7) Ver kombu8) Thulasi9) Sembatti10) Velerukku வெள்ளெருக்கு11) Aghil12) Devadaaru 13) Pei pudal பேய்புடல்14) Vasambu – sweet flag15) Karpooram16) Sandhanam
Awesome Swati let's try
is sambrani same as loban and can it be ingested?
Anywhere online ud recommend or can i get in nattu marundu kadai ?
@Ramya, can you pls suggest Where to buy paal sambrani?