Monday, June 8, 2009

Relocation to Gaharu Online

GaharuBiz has found a new home.

Please proceed to Gaharu Online.



bzzy8ar388

Monday, April 20, 2009

Types of Gaharu Tree

Type of Gaharu based on ranking.

1. AQUILARIA SUBINTEGRA, Found at Thailand
2. AQUILARIA CRASSNA, Found at Thailand, Cambodia, Loas, Vietnam
3. AQUILARIA MALACCENSIS, Found at Thailand, India, Indonesia
4. AQUILARIA APICULATA, Found at Philippines
5. AQUILARIA BAILLONIL, Found at Thailand, Combodia, Loas, Vietnam
6. AQUILARIA BANEONSIS, Found at Vietnam
7. AQUILARIA BECCARIAN, Found at Indonesia
8. AQUILARIA BRACHYANTHA, Found at Malaysia
9. AQUILARIA CUMINGIANA, Found at Indonesia, Philippines
10.AQUILARIA FILARIA, Found at Nuegini, China
11.AQUILARIA GRANDIFLORA, Found at China
12.AQUILARIA HILATA, Found at Indonesia, Malaysia
13.AQUILARIA KHASIANA, Found at India
14.AQUILARIA MICROCAPA, Found at Indonesia, Malaysia
15.AQUILARIA ROSTRATA, Found at Malaysia
16.AQUILARIA SINENSIS, Found at China

Comparison of four types of Gaharu based on agarwood oil yield and prices.
1. SUBINTEGRA, Oil = Good, Price = Good.
2. CRASSNA, Oil = Medium, Price = Medium.
3. MALACCENSIS, Oil = Poor, Price = Poor.
4. BAILLONIL, Oil = Poor, Price = Poor.

Related posts:
* Aquilaria (Agarwood, Karas or Gaharu)

Latar Belakang Pokok Gaharu

Pokok Gaharu atau dikenali dalam Bahasa Ingris sebagai Agarwood adalah pokok dalam family Thymelaeceae. Pokok yang telah matang akan membesar sehingga 40 meter tinggi dan berdiameter 40cm. Pokok gaharu di hutan semulajadi mula mengeluarkan resin gaharu pada usia 20 hingga 45 tahun, bergantung pada ketahanan pokok dan tindakbalas kecederaan pokok.

Pokok gaharu amat diminati kerana dapat menghasilkan aroma yang wangi dan menyenangkan apabila dibakar kayunya. Mengikut data yang dikeluarkan pada Persidangan Gaharu Dunia pertama di Vietnam terdapat 16 spesis dari genus Aquilaria yang mempunyai nilai komersil yang tinggi.

BERIKUT ADALAH JENIS-JENIS AGRAWOOD MENGIKUT RANKING

1. AQUILARIA SUBINTEGRA, Found at Thailand
2. AQUILARIA CRASSNA, Found at Thailand, Cambodia, Loas, Vietnam
3. AQUILARIA MALACCENSIS, Found at Thailand, India, Indonesia
4. AQUILARIA APICULATA, Found at Philippines
5. AQUILARIA BAILLONIL, Found at Thailand, Combodia, Loas, Vietnam
6. AQUILARIA BANEONSIS, Found at Vietnam
7. AQUILARIA BECCARIAN, Found at Indonesia
8. AQUILARIA BRACHYANTHA, Found at Malaysia
9. AQUILARIA CUMINGIANA, Found at Indonesia, Philippines
10.AQUILARIA FILARIA, Found at Nuegini, China
11.AQUILARIA GRANDIFLORA, Found at China
12.AQUILARIA HILATA, Found at Indonesia, Malaysia
13.AQUILARIA KHASIANA, Found at India
14.AQUILARIA MICROCAPA, Found at Indonesia, Malaysia
15.AQUILARIA ROSTRATA, Found at Malaysia
16.AQUILARIA SINENSIS, Found at China

Pokok gaharu hidup di kawasan tanah pamah sehingga ketinggian 750m dari aras laut dan memerlukan taburan hujan dan kelembapan yang tinggi. Gaharu digunakan dalam industri minyak wangi, produk perubatan, perubatan Ayurvedic, majlis keagamaan dan sebagainya.

Permintaan untuk gaharu semakin tinggi walaupun pengeluaran semakin berkurangan menyebabkan harganya semakin meningkat setiap tahun. Kebanyakan gaharu dieksport kepada. pemborong-pemborong di Singapura, Timur Tengah, Hongkong dan Taiwan.

Harganya boleh mencecah sehingga RM14-18 ribu sekilogram untuk gred Double Super. Malahan harga pasaran untuk minyak gaharu juga amat tinggi iaitu RM45 ribu/kg (kaedah penggredan kualiti kayu dan minyak masih belum dipiawaian dan bergantung kepada penjual dan pembeli).

Asia Tenggara mengeksport gaharu bernilai RM48.3 million ke Arab Saudi dan bekalan hanya memenuhi 20% daripada permintaan pasaran.

Buat masa ini, kebanyakkan gaharu dikeluarkan daripada hasil hutan dan amat terhad. Tanpa penanaman semula. spesis ini akan terus diancam kepupusan disebabkan aktiviti pengambilan gaharu.

Penanaman gaharu di Malaysia masih baru dan belum popular, tetapi di negara lain seperti Indonesia, Thailand dan Kemboja sudah lama diusahakan. Malah ia mendapat sokongan yang amat kuat daripada pihak agensi kerajaan mereka dari segi modal dan teknologi.

Keseluruhan pokok gaharu (batang, daun & akar) berguna dan dapat dikomensilkan.

Penanaman pokok gaharu sesuai dijalankan di tanah terbiar, kawasan rezab hutan simpan, kawasan pembalakan yang telah diterokai dan dijalankan secara pertanian hutan ladang dan diintegrasikan dengan pelbagai tanaman lain seperti herba dan tanaman komoditi.


Source: herbatani.com

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Gaharu Export Potential

IF you are looking for an investment with lucrative returns, look no further than the “black gold of the forest” — the agarwood, or better known as gaharu.

Each kilogramme of high-quality gaharu can fetch up to RM30,000 in the global market and prices are expected to surge as demand continues to rise.

But don’t tread into the forests scouring for them yet, for three good reasons — diminishing supplies, fine and jail if you have no permit to do so, and the market for wild gaharu could come to an end in the near future.

Instead, plant the Aquilaria or karas trees today, from which gaharu is derived, and you can expect to reap the rewards five to eight years down the line.

Produced only by “sick” trees infected by fungi, this highly sought after fragrant resin has a cohort of uses, from aromatherapy to spa baths, decorative furniture, perfume, chopsticks, weapon holders, massage oil, joss sticks and items of medicinal value.

The world’s gaharu production is able to meet only 20 per cent of the global demand, posing a huge potential for top exporters like Malaysia to cash in on the rewarding business.

Just by exporting some 200,000kg of wild gaharu a year to places like the Middle East, Singapore, Taiwan and France, Malaysia can rake in a whopping RM3 billion.

And that’s solid gaharu alone.

Meanwhile, gaharu oil, although fetching a lesser value at RM25,000 a litre, contributed nothing less than RM4 million to the economy two years ago.

The bulk of the 170 litres of exported oil went to the United Arab Emirates, according to the Malaysian Timber Industry Board.

However, concerns on dwindling supply have prompted the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry to encourage everyone, from farmers and interested individuals to the private sector, to embark on karas plantation.

Wild gaharu especially the better-graded ones, could diminish from forests in the next 10 years due to over harvesting, according to the ministry’s secretary general, Datuk Suboh Mohd Yassin.

Planting gaharu is a viable and sustainable option, and plantation from this region will become a significant source in a few years, he said.

Around 700ha of karas have been planted all over Malaysia by both the Forestry Department Peninsular Malaysia and Forest Research Institute Malaysia for research and development, and by the private sector for exporting.

There are plans to expand the private plantation to 2,400ha in Sabah and 800ha in Selangor.

Interested planters can contact the Forestry Department to purchase saplings, which cost RM7-10 each, and also for technical assistance.

After four to six years, upon maturing, the trees will be injected with fungal pathogens to trigger gaharu production, and this can be harvested after five months to a year.

Suboh urged forestry departments and agencies to conduct further research on gaharu production on an operational scale.

The challenge is to come up with high-quality gaharu, the desired grade and predictable volume to make planting a viable proposition for commercial investment.

He said the quality and quantity of plantation-produced gaharu are expected to gradually increase and poised to replace wild gaharu.

“I’m confident we can do it,” “But we must move fast for our neighbours are much ahead of us. Still, it’s not too late to start now.” Other gaharu-exporting countries include Indonesia, China, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Myanmar.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Gaharu is a Lucrative Business

Shops selling aromatic gaharu oils and woodchips are sprouting in Kuala Lumpur to cater to Middle Eastern tourists. The business, however, is depleting a species of trees in the forest.

IT’S that time of the year that has come to be recognised as “Arab season”, where hordes of Middle Eastern tourists throng shopping malls and streets in Kuala Lumpur’s Golden Triangle.

Restaurants featuring Arabic cuisine have sprouted in the main boulevard of the Bukit Bintang area but a far more lucrative business catering to these tourists is the many outlets selling a type of fragrance in wood form or oil.

Billboards in Arabic, English and Bahasa Malaysia featuring incense burners, woodchips and perfume bottles advertise the goods – gaharu or agarwood.

A recent phenomenon, these outlets are targeting Arabs with a penchant for the aromatic products that come from forests in this part of the world. The fragrant wood is essentially the resin extracted from the infected part of gaharu-producing Aquilaria trees.

Retailer Abu Mishaal says the gaharu retail business began four years ago and the number of shops has increased lately. A random count showed at least a dozen such shops, including two new ones operating from a hotel lobby.

The business partner of Al-Anood says his best quality agarwood came from Cambodian and Malaysian forests. “We buy from many places but mostly from Malaysia and Indonesia. We get an average of 6kg a month from Malaysia but 50kg from Indonesia in the wood form.”

The black, aromatic oil in bottles is extracted from woodchips at a distillation plant in Kajang. Arriving in Malaysia seven years ago, the Yemeni businessman saw the potential of the business and supplied the perfumed oil to the Middle East before setting up shops in the city. The plant produces 2kg of oil each month and these are bottled in 3mg, 6mg and 12mg glass containers.

Like other gaharu outlets at Jalan Bukit Bintang, Al-Anood sells woodchips, oil and powder. “Tourists buy these as souvenirs for their friends and relatives back home,” he explains.

Woodchips range from RM100 to RM500 per kg for the average grades. The superior quality grade can fetch no less than RM5,000 per kg while a 12mg bottle of oil ranges from RM50 to RM200. However, prices for the best quality are determined by the buyers’ knowledge and bargaining skills.

Other nationalities like Cambodians and Thais have also joined the business. One outlet in a hotel lobby is helmed by a Bangladeshi who professes to have dabbled in gaharu and the Arabic perfumery industry since 1976. Differing from other perfume producers, the Muslim-Arab perfume industry relies on the alcohol-free gaharu oil extracts.

“We might set up a distillation plant here to ease supply flows,” says the trader. “Currently, we depend on our two Jakarta factories for the oil extracts. It all depends on the supply of woodchips and market demand. It’s a bit too soon to tell as my shop is not officially open yet,” he says, adding that he is in the process of obtaining the required business licences.

He points out that local supply of the woodchips is shrinking and high quality resin is a rarity these days. The best quality gaharu is burned directly as incense by wealthy Arabs during important functions. Due to declining quality, traders are turning to distillation to add value to an otherwise low quality yield.

The traders claim that it is not an offence for tourists to carry a few bottles or packets of the woodchips home as these are for personal use.

“They don’t need any Cites certificate. Our raw materials are acquired legally hence the end products are also legal,” assures Abu Mishaal. Harvest of the woodchips is supposedly regulated by the respective state Forestry Department.

The entire genus of Aquilaria was listed under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in late 2004 with mounting concerns over the sustainability of the trade. International trade of the species is regulated by a permit system to show that the specimen was acquired with no detrimental effect to its survival in the wild.

Both traders say their businesses are registered with the Malaysian Timber Industrial Board (MTIB) – the management authority for Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah on timber-related Cites species.

But enquiries to MTIB – on regulating the growing gaharu trade and closing Custom loopholes which do not cover gaharu oil – went unanswered. It is learnt that MTIB has not issued any Cites import certificates or re-export permits for gaharu products made from imported woodchips or resin, indicating that the bulk of the Bukit Bintang trade is effectively illegal.

At a workshop organised by Traffic (a WWF-IUCN trade monitoring group) in March, an official from MTIB said stringent checks were needed at airports as there have been cases of gaharu woodchips being declared as other products. He said it was difficult to control the trade and suggested monitoring at the harvesting stage and commercial plantation to meet market demand.

Previously, MTIB’s director of licensing and enforcement Norchahaya Hashim said exporters must produce the respective state extraction permit, the licence number of the processors and receipt of the royalty payment before applications were processed. She noted then that MTIB needed the support of the Customs and Excise Department to curb smuggling at entry and exit points, adding that awareness of the issue has to be raised among relevant agencies.

Kelantan implemented a licensing scheme on gaharu collection, processing and trading last year but other states have been slow in recognising the value of the resin.

Stringent licensing at the state level and licensing of traders like those at Bukit Bintang would curtail uncontrolled harvest.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Gaharu Inoculation - How to

How to inoculate Gaharu for its valuable resin?

Inoculation is a method was developed to induce the production of gaharu in young plantation trees. The trees are wounded or inoculated in a specific manner and the gaharu production as the natural defence response is supported by applying specific treatments. This method can ensure the sustainable production of gaharu in plantation trees.


The artificial inoculation process involves creating holes on a karas tree, filling them with fungal pathogen, and sealing them off with wax

Produced only by “sick” trees infected by fungi, this highly sought after fragrant resin has a cohort of uses, from aromatherapy to spa baths, decorative furniture, perfume, chopsticks, weapon holders, massage oil, joss sticks and items of medicinal value.

After four to six years, upon maturing, the trees will be injected with fungal pathogens to trigger gaharu production, and this can be harvested after five months to a year.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Gaharu Commercial Production

Researchers are looking at various inducement techniques to produce aromatic gaharu on a commercial scale.

The Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (Frim) began researching in the late 1990s following a surge in market demand for gaharu and is still refining its inoculation technique.

Based on anecdotes from Orang Asli collectors, researchers deliberately wound the tree trunk and indeed, gaharu was produced in varying degrees of formation, suggesting that it can be induced in standing Aquilaria trees by artificial means. But the grade obtained was inconsistent.

Over 100 Aquilaria malaccensis saplings were planted on a 1ha trial plot at the institute’s research station at Bukit Hari between 1998 and 2000. Artificial inducement was carried out after three years but the trees did not respond.

FRIM research co-ordinator Dr Chang Yu Shyun suspects that the trees were not mature enough to produce the resin.

"In nature, when a branch or twig is broken, the wound attracts bacteria, fungi and pathogens. In gaharu-producing species like Aquilaria, the tree will produce the resin to contain the infection from spreading, covering the wound and blackening the whitish heartwood. That’s how gaharu is produced.

"The challenge is to come out with high quality or the desired grade and predictable volume to make planting a viable solution to over-harvesting of wild species," says Chang.

The senior research officer in the biotechnology division says the research initially focused on inoculation trials but later expanded to cover the biological aspect, economic value, trade and chemical analysis of the fragrant resin.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Institute of Nuclear Technology (Mint) has applied nuclear irradiation technology to mass-produce plantlets via tissue culture.

Seeds were screened for fast-growth and single-bole characteristics at the cellular level and lead researcher Dr Rusli Ibrahim claims he has found the secret formula after one year of experimentation.

"With this technique, we can fast-track the growing stage. Many plantation investors will benefit from this advancement."

Five hundred plantlets are growing in a trial plot near Dengkil. Rusli says two other research groups will look for suitable antagonists to induce the tree and the best extraction technique to yield oil of the desired chemical composition.

The hill within the MINT compound was recently discovered to host 157 matured Aquilaria trees. "At the end of the year, we intend to invite two United States experts to demonstrate to the growers the right way of inoculating these trees," says Rusli.

MINT has submitted four funding proposals under the Ninth Malaysian Plan to support the research work which will also include developing a standard grading system for woodchips and oil extracts.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Aetoxylon sympetalum - Gaharu species

Thymelaeaceae
Aetoxylon sympetalum

Tree up to 40m tall and 60cm diameter.

Habitat: Locally frequent in kerangas forest.

Distribution: In West Sarawak

Local name: Gaharu buaya

Note: A monotypic genus of Sarawak, producing the most valuable gaharu wood from the heartwood. This species is threatened due to over-exploitation.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Poverty eradication with Gaharu

The Sabah Land Development Board (SLDB) will embark on ‘gaharu’ or agarwood commercial planting, which could provide a viable option for its poverty eradication programme.

SLDB general manager Jhuvarri Majid said the hilly terrain in the interior of Sabah had been identified for commercial planting of the scented wood.

“A 400ha piece of land has been earmarked for an agarwood plantation and work on the first phase covering 40ha is expected to begin soon.

“From what we have gathered and the knowledge available to us, agarwood is native to Sabah and can be found in the wild in Keningau and Pensiangan,” he said in a statement issued here yesterday.

He said SLDB, which started a 20ha trial plot in Lahad Datu, would be working closely with a local company, Sudahgaharu Sdn Bhd, to come out with a working model to establish the wood’s commercial viability.

Jhuvarri said in addition to the commercial project, agarwood planting could be integrated with a reforestation programme to maintain and enrich the greenery in the state.

He said a Kelantan-based Thai company, Sahabat Pertanian AT Thai (M) Sdn Bhd, was keen to initiate a joint venture for large-scale agarwood planting in Sabah.

“The Thais have developed an agarwood species known as Aquilaria Subintegra, which is the best variety and we will get the seedlings from them,” he added.

An acre of land can be planted with up to 1,100 agarwood trees and they take seven years to mature, after which the trunks are inoculated with a special formula to induce resin production that can be harvested between nine and 12 months.

Prices can reach more than US$30,000 for a kilogramme of top quality oil and resinous wood.

The current supply of agarwood can only meet about 20 per cent of global demand, particularly from the Middle East, which is the major buyer, according to the statement.

— Bernama

Thursday, February 19, 2009

科学知识gaharu

记录科学知识gaharu和沉香可以追溯到几百年的杂志第一次探险家,商人,和博物学家到亚洲。

科学研究热带林业和农业在19世纪和20世纪初集中于物种的重要商业价值的殖民贸易公司,主要是茶,咖啡,可可,和橡胶。研究兴趣沉香及其初级产品, gaharu ,已零星最好。

大多数出版物集中在沉香的植物特性,其产品及其使用,偶尔的加工技术,以及后来的力学性能,木结构,化学性质。一些第一批控制,科学实验与沉香和gaharu在印度开始生产在20世纪20年代后期( Beniwal 1989年)。

在未来的几十年中,只有极少数的研究报告已经发表。从1970年到1994年,只有22条生产,有超过四分之三出现在过去十年半的时间。的模式出现在一系列的研究课题相关的沉香表明极大兴趣,无论是在消费以及生产国,其增加的商业活动。与前十年中,一些研究文章对这一物种的两倍,在过去十年。

各个方面的专题,其中包括研究,化学,植物学,以及真菌方面,大约两倍多的出版物上出现了化学分析,特别是从日本科学家感兴趣的生物合成。信息研究和贸易商在东南亚地区实地试验表明,试验各种再生方法和接种协议正在开展在不丹,缅甸,泰国,印度尼西亚,越南和老挝。小本研究已经出版,并很可能保留作为专有资料的潜在利润丰厚的利润是从成功驯化gaharu生产。

来源:生态和社会效益: 学习从传统知识的非木材森林产品: Penan Benalui和个体生态学的沉香在印尼婆罗洲

English: Scientific knowledge on gaharu

Arabic: المعرفة العلمية على

Chinese:

に関する科学的知識

gaharuに関する科学的知識とAquilaria記録の最初の探検家に戻るには数世紀の定期刊行物の日付、トレーダーらは、アジアにナチュラリスト。

熱帯林業、農業、 19 、 20世紀初期の重要な商業的価値の種には、植民地の貿易会社を中心に実施の科学技術研究特に紅茶、コーヒー、カカオ、ゴム。 Aquilariaの研究関心とその一次製品、 gaharu 、されて最高の状態で散発している。

ほとんどの出版物Aquilariaの植物の特性に焦点を当てて、機械的性質に加工技術を自社製品とその用途は、時折、その後、木構造、および化学的特性。 いくつかの最初の制御、 Aquilariaとgaharu生産科学実験、インドでは1920年代後半に始まった( Beniwal 1989 ) 。

今後数十年間にわたり、研究報告書のほんの一握りに発表された。 1970年、 1994年、わずか22の記事を生産され、 4分の3以上は、過去10年間との間で半分に表示されています。 その研究テーマに関連するAquilariaの範囲を越え出現パターンだけでなく、生産国は、商業活動の増加と消費者の両方に興味の急増を、示しています。 前の10年と比較すると、この種の研究論文の数は、過去10年間でtrebled 。

化学薬品、植物の研究など、トピックのスペクトルは、菌学の面全体で、およそ2倍の多くの出版物の化学分析には、日本の科学者からの生合成に興味が特に掲載されている。 情報を研究者や東南アジアのトレーダーからは、実地試験ブータン、ミャンマー、タイ、インドネシア、ベトナム、ラオスで行われている様々な再生方法や接種プロトコルのテストを示しています。 本研究のほとんど公開されているが、独自の情報は、潜在的な有利な利益を与えられたとしてgaharu生産の成功で作られている家畜に保持されることがあります。

出典:生態学と社会: 学習伝統的知識以外の森林からの木材製品: Penan Benaluiし、個生態学Aquilariaのインドネシアのボルネオで

Arabic: المعرفة العلمية على

English: Scientific knowledge on gaharu

Chinese

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

gaharu المعرفة العلمية على

سجل المعرفة العلمية المتعلقة gaharu و Aquilaria يعود تاريخها إلى قرون عدة مجلات من أول المستكشفين ، والتجار ، والطبيعة لآسيا.

البحث العلمي في الزراعة والغابات المدارية ، التي يضطلع بها في وقت مبكر و19th قرون 20th تركز على الأنواع ذات القيمة التجارية الكبيرة لالاستعمارية بين الشركات التجارية وأهمها الشاي والقهوة والكاكاو والمطاط. البحث في Aquilaria والمنتجات الأولية ، gaharu ، كان متقطعا في أفضل الأحوال.

معظم المنشورات التي تركز على خصائص Aquilaria النباتية ، ومنتجاتها واستخداماتها ، وأحيانا على تقنيات المعالجة ، في وقت لاحق ، والميكانيكية والخشب وهيكل ، والكيميائية. بعض الأولى التي تسيطر عليها ، والتجارب العلمية مع Aquilaria وgaharu بدأ الإنتاج في الهند في أواخر 1920s (Beniwal 1989).

في العقود القليلة القادمة ، سوى عدد قليل من التقارير البحثية نشرت. بين عامي 1970 و 1994 ، سوى 22 في المواد المنتجة ، وأكثر من ثلاثة أرباع الواردة في العقد ونصف العقد الماضيين. النمط الذي يبرز عبر مجموعة من المواضيع البحثية المتعلقة Aquilaria يدل على تزايد الاهتمام في كل من المستهلكين وكذلك البلدان المنتجة ، مع زيادة في النشاط التجاري. بالمقارنة مع العقد السابق ، وعدد من المقالات البحثية حول هذه الأنواع ثلاث مرات خلال العقد الماضي.

عبر من المواضيع ، بما في ذلك البحث عن الأسلحة الكيميائية والنباتية ، وجوانب فطري ، تقريبا ضعف عدد المنشورات التي ظهرت على التحليل الكيميائي ، وخاصة من العلماء اليابانيين المهتمين الحيوي .معلومات من الباحثين والتجار في منطقة جنوب شرق آسيا إلى أن التجارب الميدانية في مختلف التجارب وتجديد أساليب والبروتوكولات التطعيم وتجري في بوتان وبورما وتايلاند واندونيسيا وفيتنام ولاوس. يذكر هذا البحث قد نشر ، وربما يكون الابقاء على الملكية والمعلومات نظرا لاحتمال أن تكون أرباح مجزية من النجاح في تدجين gaharu الإنتاج.

المصدر : البيئة والمجتمع : التعلم من المعارف التقليدية من منتجات الغابات غير الخشبية : Penan Benalui وAutecology من Aquilaria في بورنيو الأندونيسية

English: Scientific knowledge on gaharu

Friday, February 13, 2009

Scientific knowledge on gaharu

Recorded scientific knowledge concerning gaharu and Aquilaria dates back several centuries to the journals of the first explorers, traders, and naturalists to Asia.

Scientific research in tropical forestry and agriculture undertaken in the 19th and early 20th centuries focused on species of significant commercial value to the colonial trading companies—most notably tea, coffee, cacao, and rubber. Research interest in Aquilaria and its primary product, gaharu, has been sporadic at best.

Most publications have focused on Aquilaria’s botanical characteristics, its products and their uses, occasionally on processing techniques, and later on mechanical properties, wood structure, and chemical properties. Some of the first controlled, scientific experiments with Aquilaria and gaharu production began in India in the late 1920s (Beniwal 1989).

Over the next few decades, only a handful of research reports were published. Between 1970 and 1994, only 22 articles were produced, with more than three-quarters appearing in the last decade and a half. The pattern that emerges across the range of research topics related to Aquilaria indicates an upsurge of interest, both in consumer as well as producer countries, with the increase in commercial activity. Compared with the previous decade, the number of research articles on this species trebled over the last decade.

Across the spectrum of topics, including research on chemical, botanical, and mycological aspects, roughly twice as many publications have appeared on chemical analysis, especially from Japanese scientists interested in biosynthesis. Information from researchers and traders in Southeast Asia indicates that field trials testing various regeneration methods and inoculation protocols are being conducted in Bhutan, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Laos. Little of this research has been published and it may well be retained as proprietary information given the potential lucrative profits to be made from the successful domestication of gaharu production.

Source: Ecology and Society: Learning from Traditional Knowledge of Non-timber Forest Products: Penan Benalui and the Autecology of Aquilaria in Indonesian Borneo

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Eaglewood in Apo Kayan plateau, Kalimantan

In the mountainous area of northeastern Kalimantan, close to the border with Sarawak, lies the Apo Kayan plateau.

To get there, visitors must brave dense forest, rugged terrain and dangerous rapids. The only relatively safe way to reach the destination is by hitching a ride on one of the small planes operated by the Missionary Aviation Fellowship.

Apo Kayan is mostly inhabited by Kenyah people, a Dayak indigenous group. Their territory is still recognized as one customary land, or wilayah adat, under the leadership of the customary chief, or kepala adat besar, in the village of Long Nawang .

Introducing eaglewood

One of the activities still practiced in the Apo Kayan area is the extraction of non-timber forest products. Gaharu is one example. Also known as eaglewood or aloes wood, the fragrant resinous wood produced by a fungal infection in trees of the genus Aquilaria, it is an export product which is used in the manufacture of incense, perfume, and medicinals. There is no local use for gaharu in Apo Kayan.

A few guidelines for collectors

How does one obtain gaharu? First, the telling signs have to be identified, such as evidence of infection, specific colour of the leaves or the texture of the bark. Local people recognize that this method, while based on local ecological knowledge and experience, is not certain.

Moreover, there is no way to tell what part of the tree might contain the infected heartwood. Sometimes, gaharu collectors might decide to cut a tree with no apparent sign of infection, just to check if it has any.

From small trade beginnings…

In the past, gaharu was traded in small quantities from the Apo Kayan during expeditions to the lowlands. A small collecting boom took place in the 1970s, but it was limited in scope.

Collectors were mostly coming from neighbouring Kenyah villages to harvest high-grade aloes wood. The traders were also mostly Dayak entrepreneurs.

…to serious business

Then things suddenly changed. In early 1991, an increasing number of outside collectors organized in teams and sponsored by traders based in Samarinda, on the south coast of Kalimantan, started appearing. This first gaharu rush lasted until 1995.

After a brief lull, a surge in activities with involvement of outside middlemen and traders re-occurred in 1998, in the sub-district of Kayan Hilir. Today, the trade is still ongoing. With some brief exceptions, the market value of gaharu has increased steadily or, at least, remained constant over the years. Prices rose dramatically right after the economic crisis hit the Southeast Asian countries in 1997-1998.

Source: WWF In focus: Eaglewood in the crossfire: Apo Kayan plateau, Kalimantan

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Gaharu Tree - Wood of the Gods

The Agarwood or Gaharu Tree (also known as Wood of the Gods) produces the raw material for incense, perfumes or fragrant and even alternative medicine.

The scientific name for Gaharu is Aquilaria and is also known as scented wood in the old days.

Usage of Gaharu

The “Wood of the Gods” has been traded and highly appreciated for thousands of years. This resinous wood is used as incense, for medicinal purposes, and pure resin in distilled form is used as perfume and perfume component.

Value of Gaharu

The value of first-grade Agarwood is extremely high. A whole range of qualities and products is on the market varying with geographical location and cultural deposition. Prices range from a few dollars per kilo for the lowest quality to over thirty thousand US dollars for top quality oil and resinous wood.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The Hidden History of Scented Wood (or Ud)

Written by Eric Hansen

Several years ago, in the perfume and incense market in the old city of Sana'a in Yemen, I caught sight of a large apothecary jar full of gaharu wood chips. The jar sat on a dusty shelf, tucked away in a dark corner of the stall owned by Mohammed Hamoud al-Kalagi. When I asked him to show me its contents, he placed the jar on the front counter and pulled out a chip of wood. Mohammed called the wood 'ud (pronounced ood), a name I did not recognize, but it looked very familiar. I could hardly contain my growing sense of excitement as I examined it closely.

Mohammed placed a tiny sliver of the wood on the end of a lit cigarette. Within moments we were inhaling a rich, sweet, woody fragrance that I had first smelled in the Borneo rain forest 15 years earlier. At that time, I was traveling with a group of nomadic hunter-gatherers known as Penan. We were looking for herbs used in traditional medicine, but one day the Penan cut down a tree and collected pockets of fragrant wood from within the trunk and branches. They called these dark patches of wood gaharu. I rubbed a small piece of gaharu between my palms to warm it, and it smelled like cedar and sandalwood, but with subtle fragrance notes of roses and balsam. For years I had wondered what the wood was used for and where it was sent after leaving Borneo. The Penan thought gaharu might be used in Chinese medicine, because it was the upriver Chinese traders that bought it, but apart from that, they were mystified as to why anyone would want to buy those gnarly bits of wood.

Mohammed al-Kalagi, who thought that 'ud came only from India, was the first person to help me begin to unravel the long and convoluted history of this scented wood. He told me it was burned as incense throughout the Islamic world, and an oil was extracted from it that retailed for nearly $20 a gram ($500 an ounce) as a perfume.

When I told Mohammed that the gaharu collectors in Borneo considered the wood to have only a modest barter value, he laughed and recited lines that he attributed to the eighth-century Egyptian jurist and poet Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i: Gold is just dust when still in the ground.

And 'ud, in its country of origin, Is just another kind of firewood.

A few days after my visit, I walked through the narrow streets of old Sana'a to the home of Yemeni friends. The family lived in a tastefully restored stone tower house in the Turkish Quarter, and during the meal that night I discovered that 'ud has domestic uses beyond simple incense: A small chip placed amid the tobacco in the bowl of the mada'ah, or water pipe, sweetens the smoke and keeps the pipe fresh. And although 'ud is generally considered more of a man's scent, it is also used by women who place bits of the wood in a mabkharah, a small, hand-held charcoal brazier used to scent clothes; it is also used to perfume hair and skin. My host explained that at women's get-togethers it would be considered strange not to pass around a mabkharah of smoldering 'ud or other incense so the female guests could perfume themselves.

"When you walk by a woman on the street and you smell 'ud, you know that she is from a good family," the husband told me. "It is a sign of wealth, good breeding, refinement and status."

Similarly, when Yemeni men congregate, it is customary for them to pass around a mabkharah of 'ud. Each man opens his jacket and censes his shirt and underarms, then his face and his mashedah, or head scarf, if he is wearing one. The mabkharah is always passed counter-clockwise, and each man wafts the smoke onto himself and says, "God's blessings and peace on the Prophet Muhammad." 'Ud is burned ceremonially at weddings, too, and the oil is sometimes used to perfume the body of the dead before burial.

In Yemen, the price and quality of 'ud varies considerably: At an average wedding party in Sana'a it is considered appropriate to spend about $30 to $50 by burning 50 or 100 grams (two or three ounces) of one of the less expensive grades of 'ud, but for the well-heeled, 30 grams (a single ounce) of a superior grade can set one back $250 to $300.

Before I left the dinner party that night, my host placed a tiny drop of 'ud oil on the front of my shirt and explained that the fragrance would survive several washings—which it did. 'Ud oil is often placed on older men's beards or younger men's jacket lapels so that during the traditional cheek-to-cheek greetings its sweet, woody scent dominates.

Although the southern Arabian Peninsula has been long identified with aromatics, few Westerners are familiar with 'ud, a word that means simply "wood" in Arabic. This obscurity is partly due to 'ud rarity and cost, but it is also a matter of varying taste and differing cultural traditions. During the Hajj, for example, Muslim pilgrims from around the world come to Makkah and Madinah, where many are introduced to the scent of 'ud, which is burned in the Great Mosque as well as in many other mosques throughout Saudi Arabia. 'Ud produces a fragrance that is not soon forgotten, and for this reason small packets of 'ud chips are a common souvenir to take home from the Hajj.

In various other places in the Islamic world, 'ud is burned to help celebrate the important events of everyday life. In Tunisia, for example, 'ud is burned on the third, seventh and 40th days following the birth of a child, a time when the mother traditionally remains at home while female relatives and friends come to visit.

Throughout Malaysia and Indonesia, 'ud is called by the name I first heard in Borneo, gaharu, a Malay word derived from the much older Sanskrit term agaru, meaning "heavy." The scented wood was given that name because, indeed, a high-quality piece of gaharu will sink in water. The Susruta Samhita, one of the "great three" texts of Ayurvedic medicine, describes how people of the Ganges plain used smoldering agaru for worship, as perfume and to fumigate surgical wounds. In those times, agaru came largely from the tree Aquilaria agallocha, which was found in the foothills of Assam.

In the 16th century, the Portuguese, who were actively trading in Goa, Malacca and Macao, adapted the word agaru to pao d'aguila, or "eagle wood"—which at least had a meaning in Portuguese, though there is no connection between eagles and 'ud. In the English-speaking world today, the most common terms for 'ud are aloeswood or agarswood; this last word preserves a clear link to the original Sanskrit.

The best grade of 'ud is hard, nearly black and very heavy. In general, 'ud becomes inferior as it appears lighter in tone, flecked with diminishing amounts of resin. The only truly reliable way to test for quality, however, is to burn a small bit and evaluate the complexity and richness of the smoldering wood. 'Ud oil can be taste-tested: Touch a bit to your tongue, and a bitter taste points to high quality.

Historians are uncertain when 'ud first reached the Middle East. There are several references to "aloes" in the Old Testament, and estimates by historians of China Friedrich Hirth and W.W. Rockhill put the date as far back as the 10th century BC. This was when King Solomon began trade with the south Arabian Sabaean kingdom, which was already trading with merchants on the Malabar (western) coast of India. (See Aramco World, March/April 1998.) Written accounts of Arab and Chinese travelers and merchants that mention it date to more recent times, approximately the first century of our era, a time of accelerating trade among the Arabian Peninsula, the Malabar coast and China that was made possible by the exploitation of the seasonal monsoon winds across the Indian Ocean. At this time, frankincense and myrrh from Oman and the Hadhramaut region of southern Arabia were being traded in the Far East, so it seems reasonable to assume that a reciprocal trade in 'ud would have traveled on the same maritime routes.

The Chinese role in the 'ud trade has been significant since the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), when Imperial perfume blenders used it along with cloves, musk, costus-root oil and camphor. Like the Indians, the Chinese named the wood for its density, calling it cb'en hsiang, "the incense that sinks in water." In those days, 'ud was sorted into as many as 20 different grades.

Responding to the increasing domestic and international demand for 'ud, Chinese traders ventured into Annam, now part of Vietnam, where they found top-quality trees in abundance. This new source of supply allowed them to become wholesale dealers and middlemen, and to this day they retain this position worldwide.

Arab and Persian traders had established settlements on the outskirts of Canton as early as 300, and a Chinese traveler named Fa-Hien noted the riches of the Arab 'ud traders from the Hadhramaut and Oman who lived comfortably in Ceylon. The Greek geographer Cosmas Indicopleustes, writing in the sixth century, also noted that the China-Ceylon-Middle East trade included large shipments of 'ud.

In his book Silsilat al-Tawarikh (Chain of Chronicles), Zayd ibn Hassan of Siraf (now in Iran) tells of the experiences of two mnth-century traders, one Ibn Wahab of Basra and another named Suleyman. Although they traveled at slightly different times, both reported that the price and availability of 'ud in both Basra and Baghdad was much affected by frequent shipwrecks and by pirate attacks on trading ships. Their roughly similar routes went from the Arabian Gulf to the Maldives, Ceylon, the Nicobar Islands and then on to Canton by way of the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea. At the time, the round-trip took at least two years, for the traders had to wait for seasonal winds, and customs formalities and the complexities of doing business in China consumed a good deal of time. Hassan relates that in Canton, Suleyman saw Arab and Persian traders playing a board game that appears to have been similar to backgammon: Occasionally the playing pieces were made of rhinoceros horn or ivory, but most commonly they were carved from fragrant 'ud.

Reading up on the history of the 12th- and 13th-century Arab-Chinese sea trade, I also came upon the Chu-fan-chi, a trade manual written by Chau Ju-kua, who was a customs official in the southern Chinese province of Kwangtung in the mid-13th century. In the text he mentions that the search for 'ud had intensified to the point that it was being collected from Hainan Island, parts of present-day Vietnam, lands about the Malay Peninsula, Cambodia and the islands of Sumatra and Java. By this time, he observed, it had become an established custom for well-to-do Muslims to wake up, bathe and perfume themselves with 'ud smoke before going to the mosque for the morning prayer.

In the early 14th century, Ibn Battuta described a visit to Ceylon where during a visit to Sultan Ayri Shakarwati he was shown "a bowl as large as a man's hand, made of rubies, containing oil of aloes." Ibn Battuta also mentioned that in Muslim lands every 'ud tree was private property, and that the best trees grew in Qamara, or Cambodia. (See Saudi Aramco World, July/August 2000.) In Saudi Arabia today, 'ud kambudi—Cambodian aloeswood—is still usually the most treasured and costly variety.

Isaac H. Burkill, in his 1935 Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula, described 'ud in scientific terms. It is an aromatic resin deposit found in certain species of Aquilaria trees, especially Aquilaria malaccensis, whose species name recalls the days when the 'ud trade was centered in Malacca and dominated by the Portuguese. Burkill explains that the resin is produced by the tree as an immune response to a fungus (Phialophora parasitica) that invades the tree and, over many years, spreads through it. It is these diseased sections of the tree that are collected by people in the jungles of Southeast Asia.

To better understand the modern trade cycle from Southeast Asia to Middle Eastern homes and mosques, I returned to Borneo and traveled upriver to talk again with the Penan tribesmen who make their living collecting 'ud, which they call gaharu.

The Penan, I learned, recognize seven types of gaharu. To collect it they paddle up small tributaries by dugout canoe, and then climb the slopes of remote mountains to locate the best trees. A gathering journey can take a week or more. Once a likely looking pohon kayu gaharu (a "gaharu-wood tree") has been found, they make a series of shallow, exploratory cuts into its trunk, branches and roots; they cut it down only when they are persuaded the tree has the fungus and will yield a reasonable amount of good gaharu. If the tree contains only low grades of gaharu, they will often let it grow for another few years before retesting it. If they do decide to cut it down, they will spend days extracting the gaharu and cleaning it with smaller knives. Traditionally, the Penan used gaharu themselves to treat stomach aches and fevers, and as an insect repellent, but now they sell or trade all they find.

In the backwaters of Borneo, the Penan sell the very best gaharu for about $400 a kilogram, or approximately $12 an ounce. They usually sell to local Chinese traders who stockpile it until they have enough to send to wholesalers and bigger middlemen in Singapore. The Penan claim that gaharu is getting more difficult to find because large-scale logging operations have destroyed many of the hill forests where the gaharu trees are found. If a Penan group has good luck, it might collect a kilo (35 oz) of average-quality gaharu in three or four days—but it is increasingly common for them to return with nothing, or with only the lowest grades.

Thirty years ago Hong Kong played an important role in the 'ud trade, but today the international hub is Singapore. There, the wholesale business is dominated by Chinese traders who receive 'ud from agents scattered across Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Borneo, Hainan Island and, most recently, Irian Jaya, Indonesia. C. P. Ng, owner of Buan Mong Heng, a emporium on North Bridge Road, is Singapore's undisputed 'ud king. He tells me that his best 'ud sells for $5000 to $10,000 per kilogram ($2275-$4545/lb). At present, the rarest and most expensive type, known as Keenam, comes from Vietnam; it must be stored in a cool place to keep its scent from deteriorating. In Irian Jaya alone, he says, more than 50,000 part-time collectors supply some 30 collection centers. Throughout the Chinese community in Singapore, he says, people use 'ud as incense in the home, for worship and during marriage ceremonies. He also explains that it can be taken with herbs to cure a stomach ache, and that the sweet smell is a cure for insomnia. "A tea made from 'ud will warm the body and restore youthful vigor to older men," he says.

In Singapore, 'ud is graded in descending quality from Super AA, which is weighed out on a jeweler's scale, to Super A, Super, and lesser grades numbered 1 through 8. The lowest quality, called kandulam in Malay, is used to make incense sticks; it sells for roughly three cents a gram ($1 per oz). The value of 'ud shipped out of Singapore each year has been estimated to exceed $1.2 billion.

In the Middle East and in Borneo I never saw more than small amounts of 'ud, amounting to a few pounds at most, but Singapore was different. There I visited the Nk Kittai warehouse, where cardboard boxes packed with 'ud reached tall ceilings and wheelbarrows and shovels were the tools of choice to move quantities that perfumed the entire surrounding neighborhood. The owner, C. F. Chong, waited on buyers from India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and even Japan. In Japan, 'ud is used in a complex fragrance guessing game called koh-do, part of the ceremonial appreciation of incense adopted from the Chinese, who still use the expression wenxiang, "listening to the incense."

The fragrance in the hot warehouse was overpowering, and as I wandered the narrow aisles surrounded by a fortune in scented wood, I saw 'ud logs as thick as my thigh and nearly three meters (10') long. Workers sat on the floor cleaning up pieces of 'ud with modified rubber-tapping knives. When I remarked that it must be a risk to store so much 'ud in one place, Chong replied that he, like other dealers, kept his very best 'ud locked up in vaults.

Out on the warehouse floor, buyers specified the type of 'ud they wanted by region and quality, and then a worker would dump a pile at the buyer's feet so that he could hand-select the individual pieces. "This is an on-the-spot business," said Chong. "Each piece has to be evaluated."

Each buyer's selection was weighed, and as all of the buyers that morning were old customers, only a minimal amount of haggling led to an agreement on a price. Nobody, it seemed, bought more than he could easily carry by hand, and each parcel was tied up for stowage as in-flight baggage. The visits concluded with tea and soft drinks in Chong's air-conditioned office.

Before leaving Singapore, I went to visit Haji V. Syed Mohammed. His shop, V. S. S. Varusai Mohamed & Sons, is just across the street from the Sultan Mosque. The store sells 'ud, perfume, money belts, cassette tapes, shawls, skull caps and highly decorative incense burners made in Bangladesh. While we were talking, he told me of one of the most renowned 'ud dealers in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates: Ajmal's Perfume Manufacturing & Oudh Processing Industry. It was a fortuitous meeting, for Dubai was my next stop.

In Dubai, there are entire streets lined with shops selling 'ud. Among them, the family-run Ajmal company is one of the largest dealers in pure and blended 'ud perfumes in all of the Middle East. From their 22 shops throughout the Arabian Peninsula, they sell 'ud oils from Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, and their most extravagant creation is a blend of aged 'ud oils called Dahnal Oudh al-Moattaq. The price: $850 for a 30-gram (1-oz) bottle. This is out of the reach of all but the most affluent, but nearly everyone can afford to buy modest amounts of 'ud chips for daily use, rituals and ceremonies—which might include driving, for Dubai automotive shops sell clip-on electric braziers that plug into a car's cigarette lighter.

Because of the popularity of 'ud, its high price and the difficulty of collecting it from the wild, several companies in peninsular Malaysia and India have begun to look into the possibility of artificially introducing the 'ud fungus into Aquilaria trees in hopes of creating commercial 'ud plantations. Thousands of trees have been inoculated with the fungus and people are waiting to see if the 'ud will start to grow, and if perhaps they can even harvest it without cutting down the tree.

Nearly a year after my visits to Singapore and Dubai, another trip took me back to Borneo. I ran into a group of Penan friends at the riverside shop of Towkay Yong Khi Liang, a Hakka Chinese trader on the upper Limbang River in Sarawak. The Penan had just traded a kilo of low-quality 'ud for a few sacks of sago flour, a replacement part for a chainsaw, some cartons of tinned food, some rolling tobacco, several pairs of cheap tennis shoes and soft drinks for everyone present.

As we stood on the dock, the Penan asked me if I had ever found out what the people in the Middle East did with the gaharu. I told them what I had discovered about the history of its trade, and then I explained the long and complicated journey it makes before arriving on the other side of the world. I described the networks of middlemen, the refined grading techniques and the marketing efforts that multiplied the price 25 times or more before it reached the final customer. They listened patiently to these facts, but what they really wanted to find out was what people did with the wood after spending so much money on it.

I suspected that they wouldn't believe me, but I had to reveal the astonishing truth: I told them people buy 'ud so that they can take it home and burn it.

Eric Hansen is a writer and photojournalist living in San Francisco. His latest book tells the story of another of the world's enigmatic, scented wonders: Orchid Fever was published in February 2000 by Pantheon Books, and will appear as a Vintage paperback next spring. Hansen's e-mail address is ekhansen@ix.netcom.com.

This article appeared on pages 2-13 of the November/December 2000 print edition of Saudi Aramco World.

Aquilaria (Agarwood, Karas or Gaharu)

What is Aquilaria?

Aquilaria is a genus of eight species of trees in the Thymelaeaceae Aetoxylon sympetalum native to southeast Asia. They occur particularly in the rain forests of Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Northern India. The trees grow to 6-20 m tall. The leaves are alternate, 5-11 cm long and 2-4 cm broad, with a short acuminate apex and an entire margin. The flowers are yellowish-green, produced in an umbel; the fruit is a woody capsule 2.5-3 cm long.

The genus is best known as the principal producer of the resin-inpregnated agarwood, especially Aquilaria malaccensis. The depletion of wild trees from indiscriminate cutting for agarwood has resulted in the trees being listed and proteced as an endangered species. Projects are currently underway in some countries in southeast Asia to infect cultivated Aquilaria trees artificially to produce agarwood in a sustainable manner.



Species

* Aquilaria acuminata
* Aquilaria apiculata
* Aquilaria baillonii
* Aquilaria crassna
* Aquilaria filaria
* Aquilaria grandiflora
* Aquilaria malaccensis
* Aquilaria ophispermum
* Aquilaria pentandra
* Aquilaria rugosa
* Aquilaria sinensis
* Aquilaria yunnanensis

Agarwood is a resinous wood that sometimes occurs in trees belonging to the Aquilaria genus, Thymelaeceae family. Aquilaria is a fast-growing, archaic tropical forest tree, which occurs in South and Southeast Asia, from the foothills of the Himalayas to the rainforests of Papua New Guinea.

The tree grows in natural forests at an altitude of a few meters above sea level to about 1000 meters, and it grows best around 500 meters. It can grow on a wide range of soils, including poor sandy soil. Seedlings need a lot of shade and water. Trees grow very fast, and start producing flowers and seeds as early as four years old. At least fifteen species of Aquilaria trees are known to produce the much sought-after Agarwood.

In South Asia Aquilaria achalloga is found, particularly in India, Aquilaria malaccensis is mostly known from Malaysia and Indonesia, and Aquilaria crassna principally grows in Indochina. A number of other species are known such as Aquilaria grandfolia, Aquilaria chinesis etc.

Usage

The “Wood of the Gods” has been traded and highly appreciated for thousands of years. Resinous wood is used as incense, for medicinal purposes, and pure resin in distilled form is used as perfume and perfume component. Outside native countries it is most widely known in the Middle East, China, Taiwan and Japan.

A strong connection exists between use, religion and curative properties, and elaborate traditional and religious ceremonies are known from around the world. Faith healers in the Middle East use it at curative ceremonies, Japanese pilgrims donate flowers and Agarwood oil to Shinto-Buddhist temples, and Vietnamese religious groups are obliged to bring Agarwood to ceremonies at their temples in Mekong delta communities.

Value

The value of first-grade Agarwood is extremely high. A whole range of qualities and products is on the market varying with geographical location and cultural deposition. Prices range from a few dollars per kilo for the lowest quality to over thirty thousand US dollars for top quality oil and resinous wood. Aquilaria crassna is listed as an endangered species in Viet Nam, and A. malaccensis is listed as endangered by the World Conservation Union, IUCN.

Extinction

Resin producing trees are endangered throughout their known habitat all across Southeast Asia. The main driving force, which initiated this project, was the recognition of unsustainable Aquilaria harvesting in natural forests that resulted in the near extinction of this tree genus in Viet Nam and elsewhere.

Aquilaria
crassna is now listed as a protected species in Vietnam, and Aquilaria malaccensis is a CITES red data book listed tree. Trade and harvesting restrictions will be virtually impossible to achieve if no alternative is developed to forest-based harvesting. In addition, both in the short and long-term, a natural resource base needs to be maintained to supply present and future Aquilaria plantations with genetic source material, in order to prevent plant decease, maintain diversity and possibly improve resin production.

Substitutes

Development of synthetic substitutes usually arises when sustainable supplies of the natural product are not available. One of the first questions pursued when contemplating the previous pilot project was: “is it possible to synthesize Agarwood and Agarwood oil?” The answer is a qualified no. Agarwood cannot be synthesized. Chemical substitutes are already available for perfume; these are cheap and constitute the least profitable end of the market.

In addition, these products do not come even close in mimicking the natural product and thus do not pose a threat to producing naturally based Agarwood products. The major chemical components responsible for the characteristic scent of Agarwood products, sesquiterterpenes, can in principle be synthesized. However, these are very complicated structures that will be extremely expensive to synthesize, which makes it commercially completely unattractive.

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