Adweeya Mufriha

Oud Mystic
I was asking myself the question of the geographical spread of species that can produce agarwood, with a related question, which is: why isn't it occuring (and nowdays being culitvated) in other similar climates?

I did a bit of research and stumbled upon the information that I quote below, which surpised me, listing much wider plant families as able to produce agarwood.

I would be extremely grateful if any of our greatly knowledgeable fellow ouddicts had further insights and information to share.

Two of the other families listed do produce some very important fragrant ingredients for the history of perfumery and for contemporary creation, that are being distilled as eo's as is (aka without any extra "resin" due to the plant defending itself into ingredients). Now I can only dream and imagine what frankincense agarwood, myrh agarwood or cinammon agarwood could turn out to be! Or course, it is unlikley that those would be specific species that produce it, but I couldn't help making letting my imagination run wild for a minute ;p For the Euphorbiaceae, I know some uses (medicinal, latex, base oil) but not for perfumery (didn't double check in detail, though)

My personal questions at this stage are:

  • are there attempts to grow the known agarwood producing species in other continents?

  • are the other biological families of trees listed below indeed really capable of producing something resembling agarwood? Aquilaria and Gyrinops species belong to Thymelaeaceae family, what of the other three mentioned?

  • if yes, has anyone ever be exposed to any of them?

These are just the basic questions, I am currently asking myself but I will be very grateful for any further information and rebounds.


The source below is self described as "Institute of Agarwood (IOA) is a non-profit organization with members dedicated to the promotion, study, research and development of the agarwood plantation and industry", so I assume it is not completely random misinformation.

Here we go (Source: http://www.agarwood.hk/IOA/agarwood.htm#02)

From the perspective of current botany, four families of trees are known to produce agarwood, namely
Thymelaeaceae, Burseraceae, Lauraceae and Euphorbiaceae. In response to specific conditions, such as in face of attacks of natural forces or by human beings, which result in wounds and fungal infection, the trunks of these tropical trees will produce resin for self-treatment, suppression of the spread of wounds and other effects of self-protection. The long process, across tens to hundreds of years, by which the resin and wood fibres integrate and transform into resinous agarwood carrying a unique fragrance is known as “incense formation” or “agarwood formation”.

In the view of current botany, four families of trees are known capable of producing agarwood.

Thymelaeaceae: Majority of tress that produce agarwood belong to the genus Aquilaria, which mainly grow in regions in South China, Vietnam , Cambodia , Lao, Vietnam, Malaysia , Thailand , Burma , India and Indonesia.

Burseraceae: Trees in the Burseraceae family that can form agarwood mainly grow in central South America.

Lauraceae: Trees in the Lauraceae family that can form agarwood mainly grow in central South America.

Euphorbiaceae: Trees in the Euphorbiaceae family that can form agarwood are mainly distributed in the tropics.
 

Uday Lalan

Junior Member
There is a forbidden jungle called the silent valley in Kerala. It is rumored that silent valley has lots of wild, old agarwood trees. Kerala was the main source of agarwood many centuries ago. Kerala agarwood was called Samandari. Isn't it possible that South American forests could have agarwood trees?
Perhaps experienced people like Alshareef Oudh and Imperial oud would be able to throw light on Samandari.
 
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