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