Wednesday, August 4, 2010

History & Formation

History
The odour of agarwood is complex and pleasing, with few or no similar natural analogues. As a result, agarwood and its essential oil gained great cultural and religious significance in ancient civilizations around the world. In as early as the 3rd century, the chronicle Nan zhou yi wu zhi (Strange things from the South) written by Wa Zhen of the Eastern Wu Dynasty mentioned agarwood produced in the Rinan commandery, now Central Vietnam, and how people collected it in the mountains.
Starting in 1580 after Nguyen Hoang took control over the central provinces of modern Vietnam, he encouraged trade with other countries, specifically China and Japan. Agarwood was exported in three varieties: Calambac (Khi Nam in Vietnamese), Tram Huong (very similar but slightly harder and slightly less rare), and agarwood proper. A pound of Calambac bought in Hoi An for 15 taels could be sold in Nagasaki for 600 taels. The Nguyen Lords soon established a Royal Monopoly over the sale of Calambac. This monopoly helped fund the Nguyen state finances during the early years of the Nguyen rule.[3]
Etymology
Agarwood is known under many names in different cultures:
• It is known as Chén-xīang (沉香) in Chinese and Jin-koh (沈香) in Japanese, both meaning "sinking incense" and alluding to its high density.
• Both agarwood and its resin distillate/extracts are known as Oud in Arabic (literally wood) and used to describe agarwood in nations and areas of Islamic faith. Western perfumers may also use agarwood essential oil under the name "oud" or "oude".
• In Europe it was referred to as Lignum aquila (eagle-wood) or Agilawood, because of the similarity in sound of agila to gaharu
• Another name is Lignum aloes or Aloeswood. This is potentially confusing, since a genus Aloe exists (unrelated), which has medicinal uses, . However, the Aloes of the Old Testament (Num. 24:6; Ps. 45:8; Prov. 7:17; and Cant. 4:14) and of the Hebrew Bible (ahalim in Hebrew) are believed to be agarwood from Aquilaria malaccensis.
• The Indonesian and Malay name is "gaharu"or karas
• In New Guinea it is called "ghara".
• In Vietnamese, it is known as trầm hương.[4]
• In Hindi (India), it is known as "agar".
• In Laos it is known as "Mai Ketsana".

Formation
There are fifteen species in of the Aquilaria genus and eight are known to produce agarwood.[5] In theory agarwood can be produced from all members; however, until recently it was primarily produced from A. malaccensis. A. agallocha and A. secundaria are synonyms for A. malaccensis.[1] A. crassna and A. sinensis are the other two members of the genus that are usually harvested.
Formation of agarwood occurs in the trunk and roots of trees that have been infected by a parasitc ascomycetous mould, Phaeoacremonium parasitica[6], a dematiaceous (dark-walled) fungus. As a response, the tree produces a resin high in volatile organic compounds that aids in suppressing or retarding the fungal growth. While the unaffected wood of the tree is relatively light in colour, the resin dramatically increases the mass and density of the affected wood, changing its colour from a pale beige to dark brown or black. In natural forest only about 7% of the trees are infected by the fungus. A common method in artificial forestry is to inoculate all the trees with the fungus.
High quality resin comes from a tree's natural immune response to a fungal attack. It is commonly known as agarwood #1 (first quality). An inferior resin is created using forced methods where aquilaria trees are deliberately wounded, leaving them more susceptible to a fungal attack. This is commonly called agarwood #2.

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