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Interesting facts about Agarwood | Aloeswood | Oud | Eaglewood | Gaharu

send  Agarwood – Wood of the Gods

Agarwood Beads

Agarwood is also called ‘Wood of the Gods, it is usually found in deep forests and mountainous areas which are not accessible to humans. It is believed that the Gods are attracted to the scent of agarwood. Wherever there is scent of agarwood, the Gods will appear. When Gods appear, they make the place or location holy with positive energy, purifying the ‘Qi’ or environmental energy. Any evil spirits or ghostly beings will flee with appearance of the Gods. Thus, many believed that one’s wishes and goals can be achieved with a clear state of mind and compassionate heart.

Agarwood application ranges from incense for religious ceremonies (China, Japan, Korea, Egypt etc), perfume for the Arabs, medicinal wine in Korea and wooden sculptures as natural art in China.

 

send  Species and Types of Agarwood

There are about 26 species of agarwood across 15 countries in the world. They are spread throughout Asia especially in S.E. Asia. They are either naturally occurring or deliberately planted in rainforests for conservation reasons.

The most traded and popular sources are Gyrinops Walla Patta (Sri Lanka), Aquilaria Crassna a.k.a ‘ Hui An’, ‘惠安’ (Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia), Aquilaria Filaria (Indonesia, Papua New Guinea), Aquilaria Malaccensis (Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia) etc. One interesting fact of names given to agarwood are actually a form of marketing. For example, Vietnam's Hui An agarwood name is derived from a trading port for trading agarwood in olden days, it is not a forest area / origin region that produces agarwood trees. Morever, the same species can be found in other countries with some variation in scent. It's just about what suits an individual using the agarwood or personal preference. Profit driven and marketing activities have caused much confusion in the agarwood market among consumers. Buy only from an expert and trusted company so that you get what suits your requirements.

Agarwood are also distributed across countries including Sri Lanka, Brunei, India, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Laos and Philippines.

Sandalwood Beads

 

send  Agarwood More Precious Than Gold

Aloeswood Incense

Agarwood are harvested from the wild and because it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to see whether a tree contains agarwood or not most of the Aquilaria and Gyrinops agarwood trees are chopped down indiscriminately. Since thousands of years, there has been an ever motivating expedition for agarwood exploitation across Asia as traders continuously search for untouched forests containing Aquilaria and Gyrinops agarwood trees. The trees were fetching high prices and as a result, the news about agarwood harvesting spread like ‘gold fever’. Large amounts of money were offered to the forest natives, the traditional producers of agarwood.

For some years the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has listed all Aquilaria species in its Appendix II to control the import and export of agarwood.

 

send  Fake Agarwood

Agarwood trading becomes more and more lucrative in the market due to its rare existence and value. Fake agarwood products start to flood the market. These products are in fact made from non-infected Aquilaria wood which has been impregnated with cheap oil and coloured by human interventions. It requires a trained professional to differentiate real agarwood from these fake agarwood using smell and physical observations.

Some fake sellers sell resinous wood piece of Excoecaria Agollocha tree in agarwood market and call it agarwood. Excoecaria Agollocha also known as fish poison has a milky sap which is poisonous. Another "agarwood" look alike is from Aetoxylon species often known as Buaya or crocodile wood. Although both belongs to the same botancial class as agarwood producing trees but it is under a different classification.

Sandalwood
Excoecaria Agollocha Tree

 

 

Sandalwood Bracelet Cultivated Agarwood

send  Cultivated Agarwood

One of the solutions to curb increasing demand and decreasing supply is to cultivate agarwood. Many agarwood producing countries are going into agarwood cultivation. But due to the deliberate human inducing method on the Aquilaria Trees and short time to harvest. The quality of the cultivated agarwood are inferior to those of natural wild agarwood. In terms of colour, the body looks white with black/brown resin in the centre. The distilled oil or extract from cultivated agarwood are light brown and transparent compared to black opaque colour. But again all colours can be adjusted (blended) or made artificially, only buy from an expert and trusted source.