Agarwood is an aromatic resinous wood that forms within some Aquilaria trees. It is also produced in a closely related genus called Gyrinops. Both of these trees, classified in the Thymelaeaceae family, grew sparsely in the rain forests of Asia but are now considered endangered in most countries and rarely found in natural forests.
For thousands of years this resinous wood was burned as incense during meditation and prayer to help people achieve a higher level of consciousness and a state of deep inner peace. Many religious groups including Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Taoists and Christians consider agarwood the most precious of materials. Agarwood incense is said to have a calming effect and to increase body energy or “chi”. It is also an important component of traditional Chinese and Malay medicine. Its pleasing fragrance has been enjoyed throughout the world and has developed into a beautiful aromatic art form in Japan called the koh-doh ceremony..
Not all agarwood is exactly the same and slight differences in aroma are common. Incense masters form the 16th century identified several types and named them Rakoku, Manaban, Sasora, and Sumatora with flavors like spicy, sweet, salty, and bitter. The one that is considered to have the most elegant scent, Kayara, combines all the flavors together in the same piece of agarwood. Today’s incense masters can determine the regional origin of the agarwood from its aroma and can even differentiate slight variances that may be found in agarwood from within one region. The essence of agarwood is due to complex compounds produced by the tree called sesquiterpenes and chromones. The type and quantity of the many diverse compounds in the resinous wood create the fragrance. These compounds are produced as a defense mechanism in the living tree to ward off microbial attack and are developed only under very specific circumstances. New methods to cultivate agarwood in plantation grown trees stimulate these naturally occurring compounds. Normally produced in old growth trees and taking decades to accumulate, the resin can now be produced in young trees. Farmed trees in small plantations and home gardens are being used to produce the cultivated agarwood in the Scented Mountain Products. For more information on agarwood cultivation and projects to help the poor in developing countries of Asia see the University of Minnesota’s agarwood research project web page.
Why are Agarwood prices so high?
Because of high demand & short supply…
Currently most agarwood comes from trees growing in natural forests and due to habitat destruction and unsustainable harvesting many species of agarwood are now potentially threatened with extinction.
For this reason the genera of Aquilaria, Gyrinops and Gonystylus that include around 30 species from which agarwood comes are now listed on Appendix II of the Convention for the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES).
Much of the agarwood currently traded does not qualify for CITES permits so it is traded across borders illegally (smuggled). This further adds to the costs because smugglers expect high margins in return for the bribes they pay and the risks they take.
Oud plays a starring role in several North American perfumes for women, including Pure Oud Eau by Killian, Oud Intense by Comptoir Sud Pacifique, Midnight Oud Eau de Parfum by Juliette Has a Gun, and Bond No. 9 New York Oud. It is also used in Sensuous by Estee Lauder, Twilight Woods by Bath & Body Works, Amouage Epic Woman by Amouage, and Daphne by Comme de Garcons.
Lord Buddha was to have said that the smell of agarwood burning “is the scent of Nirvana”.. It is also a favourite of Lord Krishna, being mentioned throughout the oldest written texts – the Sanskrit Vedas. It was burned at the funeral of Lord Issa (Jesus)
It enhances mental clarity, opens the third eye and all of the upper charkas while calming the entire system. Agarwood is highly psychoactive. It is used for a spiritual journey, enlightenment, clarity and to bring the deep peace necessary for meditation. It is recommended by experienced practitioners for providing motivation and the necessary devotion for meditation. It brings communication with the transcendent, refreshing the mind, body and spirit. It is said that prayers arise with the fragrant smoke of agarwood incense carry the prayer to the Creator.
Medicinal: Tonic, aphrodisiac, diuretic, relieves epilepsy,, antimicrobial, carminative, anti-asthmatic. Useful in nervous disorders, digestive, bronchial complaints, smallpox, rheumatism, illness during and after childbirth, spasms in the digestive and respiratory systems, fevers, abdominal pain, asthma, cancer, colic, diarrhoea, nausea, regurgitation, weakness in the elderly, shortness of breath, chills, general pains and cirrhosis of the liver. It also acts as a director or focuser for other medicines. It has been used as a treatment for lung and stomach tumours. Agarwoods ability to invoke a deep sense of relaxation makes it extremely useful in any aromatherapy session, but is especially effective where anxiety and depression are present. Also widely used as an effective aphrodisiac. Insomnia Valerian is a natural component of agarwood resin and functions to relieve insomnia and calm the nervous system before sleep, allowing one to have a deeper, longer sleep.
The oil content of Oudh determines its price, which is directly related to the quality of the fragrance and its lasting qualities. Physical and chemical testing as well as Gas Chromatography and density tests can determine the quality in a lab. But usually the appearance of oil, the quality of fragrance and its lasting strength are used as benchmarks for price determination.
“Discover the love!
I thought love was just a mirage of the mind, an illusion, something unreal and unattainable. But then I found you & began to see that love is real, and exists in me. The fragrance of your perfume, ‘Dehnal Oud’ ignited in me the age old, purest feelings of love a heart could ever define. And now I want everyone to know that love exists in every heart. Only some find it sooner, some later.”
Peace and Love to you all
It’s effect on a Self realized individual is as the Aguru, it can and will open doors. In my experience and research i have found this scientific explanation. It does not take away from the Mystic of ourselves. What i found is the heart possess brain cells. Memory cells actually and Oud and other compounds act on these memory cells. You can test it with Ylang Ylang. Everyone i asked to sniff said the same thing. It evoked a memory of the scent they could not quite put there finger on. The compound in Ylang is the compound that regulates the heart. So a sense of recognition is felt by some memory, perhaps these are the hearts memories. Is not the saying “the heart never forgets?” Oudh’s action to me is similar but much much deeper than the ylang experiment. It beckons one to a Ancient forgotten eon times ago when everyone was happy and peaceful, when people lived as one in Honah Lee. When what is sleeping in us now was not and we were whole, happy truly free people. I know most people will enjoy our products.
“Agarwood” refers to a precious, highly fragrant type of heartwood which occurs in a few specific species of tree. It can take decades for a tree to produce this aromatic wood. Agarwood’s unique and luxurious fragrance has been treasured since the introduction of the written word. Agarwood chips and essential oils have been used to create incense, perfumes and essential oils, all of which have been thought to have numerous benefits. Also known as Oudh oil, agarwood oils have even been valued as an aphrodisiac.
How to Harness the Aphrodisiacal Powers of Agarwood
Agarwood’s wonderful, unique fragrance can be preserved in both agarwood chips and essential oil produced by steaming the wood itself. This essential oil can then be added to any number of different products which allow the user to enjoy its benefits.. Massage oils, lotions and bath products can be used alone or shared by a couple to explore agarwood’s potential as an aphrodisiac. Incense produced from wild or cultivated agarwood chips can also be used to set a romantic mood. Whether used in a sensual massage between partners or as part of preparing oneself for romance, the incredible fragrance produced by agarwood chips is a wonderful aromatherapy choice.
Purchasing And Using Agarwood
If agarwood chip aromatherapy sounds appealing, there are any number of forms of agarwood which one can purchase to meet his or her needs. Cultivated agar chips are increasing in popularity, thanks to a rise in agarwood plantations around the world.. Wild agarwood chips can also be obtained, but these may be more expensive (and may contribute to the diminishing numbers of agarwood producing trees in the wild). Agarwood chips, whether obtained from wild or cultivated agarwood, is usually heated to release the aromatic resin which provides the distinctive scent. It can also be finely ground into a powder to make incense. However, many enthusiasts discovering the beneficial properties of agarwood prefer a ready-to-use product. These are readily available, thanks to the popularity of this unique scent. Ready-to-use incense, lotions, and even beverages like teas can be found. These ready-made agarwood products can take the guesswork out of using agarwood.
Choosing The Right Agarwood Product
The best method for choosing the agarwood chip product that suits your aromatherapy needs is to experiment with different products for yourself. The rich, complex, and completely unique scent of agarwood cannot be compared to anything else, just as each relationship is unique. Try agarwood to spice up yours!
Agarwood may be the answer to finding a more peaceful state of mind in today’s hectic society. The dark, resin-rich heartwood has been considered helpful to mental, physical and spiritual well-being by many cultures around the world. In fact, agarwood has played a central role in some cultures for thousands of years. But could this special substance really have a place in modern society?
What is Agarwood?
Agarwood, often sold in fragments called agarwood chips, is the name for a special type of heartwood found in only a select species of trees. These trees are susceptible to a certain type of mold, in reaction to this mold,, they produce the richly scented, dark resin that gives agarwood its unique aromatic properties. Nothing else in nature has the complex, distinctive, pleasing aroma of agarwood.
What Type of Agarwood Works Best?
Agarwood can be sold in a number of different forms. The most common are agarwood chips, as mentioned above. Cultivated agarwood is becoming more common, and cultivated agarwood chips are therefore gaining in popularity. They’re the same as wild agarwood, but cultivated agarwood is renewable. Cultivated agarwood chips can be heated in a special warmer (often available from the same merchants that sell agarwood chips) to release the scent of the resin. There are also ready-made agarwood incense products. If the heat or burning associated with incense or warming raw agarwood chips isn’t convenient, there is also an essential oil produced from wild and/or cultivated agarwood.
How to Use Agarwood to Sooth Stress
Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Tibetan cultures have long believed agarwood to have calming, stress-relieving properties. Using this ancient remedy isn’t difficult—simply find the most convenient way to enjoy its rich,, calming scent. If you’d prefer not to use agarwood chips or traditional incense, try experimenting with other forms of wild and cultivated agarwood fragrances. Essential oil produced from cultivated agarwood chips can be used in diffusers (doing double duty as air freshner), diluted and used as a linen spray, or even used as a perfume. Small drops can be placed behind the ears or on the pulse points, to carry the soothing scent of agarwood with you all day long.
Do Agarwood Chips Really Relieve Stress?
As with any remedy, agarwood may have differing effects for different people. Many people have found relief from agarwood, and almost everyone can enjoy this ancient fragrance in some manner.
For those with any interest in aromatherapy and fragrances, understanding agarwood, its history, and its uses is a must. This precious resin-saturated heartwood has been treasured since the beginning of written history, by countless cultures the world over, due to its special, one-of-a-kind fragrance.
In order to understand what makes agarwood so special, however, more than its fragrance must be taken into account. Agarwood chips have always been considered precious due to their relative difficulty to obtain. Agarwood is not simply the wood of specific species of trees, like the aromatic sandalwood. Instead, a special biological interaction between these trees and an invasive mold serves as the catalyst for agarwood production.
Its rarity in combination with its rich scent has resulted in the prominence of agarwood chips, incense, and oils around the world. In addition to being considered a precious resource due to its fragrance, other benefits have also been ascribed to agarwood.
Medicinal Benefits
Many cultures around the world have traditionally used agarwood in the treatment of various ailments. Traditional Chinese medicine has long considered products made from agarwood chips to be beneficial to those suffering from digestive ailments,, for example. Likewise, powdered agarwood was used in Indian Ayurvedic medicine for similar complaints.
Spiritual Benefits
Such a precious resource naturally has been linked with spiritual health and well-being as well. Ayurvedic traditions have suggested that burning cultivated agarwood chips can produce a pleasant and productive atmosphere for meditation. Likewise, Tibetan practitioners have traditionally believed the use of agarwood chips or their extracts to have a positive influence on mental and emotional well-being.
Other Benefits
Agarwood has played an important role in human history for thousands of years, so it should come as no surprise that the uses for and benefits of agarwood chips are nearly endless. Agarwood chips can be used to achieve balance within a home, as it is embraced by practitioners of feng shui as well. It has gained notoriety as an aromatherapy ingredient, and even an aphrodisiac. Some people even wear bracelets with beads crafted from agarwood chips. And of course, it has always been a staple of the beauty industry thanks to its long-lasting, beautiful scent.
Trying Agarwood For Yourself
A multitude of agarwood products are available, from freshly harvested wild chips, to carefully tended cultivated agarwood chips, oils, and perfumes. Explore agarwood’s many benefits with an open mind, and you may be surprised!
The first time Mike Perez wore dehn al-oud — an essential oil distilled from the resin of Asian Aquilaria trees — he was so appalled by the smell that he hid inside his home.
“I put on way too much, and frankly, it smelled like animal butt,” says Perez, a 42-year-old manager for Barclay’s Real Estate Group in Miami.
Fragrances reveal their true nature as they evaporate on the skin, Bloomberg Pursuits magazine will report in its Autumn 2013 issue, so Perez resisted the temptation to wash.
More from the Autumn issue of Bloomberg Pursuits:
MAGAZINE: Download Issue for iPad | Browse Online
EARTHWORKS: America’s Monument Men | Slideshow
TRAVEL: The Other Side of Sri Lanka | Slideshow
FOOD: Haute Vegetables on $500 Menus | Slideshow
PHYS ED: Luxury Retreats Go Primal
RIDES: Making of a Million-Dollar Koenigsegg Hypercar
SUBMARINES: Yachting’s Latest Must-Have
WING MAN: Meet the Maestro of Private Jet Sales
“The barnyard note started changing into something intensely woody, damp and complex,” recalls the fragrance enthusiast, who has a collection of almost 1,500 scents. “It lasted 24 hours, and by then, I understood why some have described oud as transcendent. I invited a friend over to try a tiny swipe; after the initial shock, he became emotional as it evoked memories of a boyhood vacation by a lake and the smell of his skin and bathing suit and even the dock drying in the summer sun.”
Akin to such potent, primeval scents as ambergris and Himalayan deer musk, oud (the name means wood in Arabic) is an alluring mystery even to those who know it well. Used by the Ancient Egyptians for embalming and mentioned in the Bible’s Song of Solomon, the resin is produced by a rare and little-understood defense mechanism: When disease-carrying microbes breach the trunk of an Aquilaria tree, a dark and extremely aromatic resin is secreted, invisible beneath the outer bark.
Burned as Incense
For reasons still unknown to science, fewer than 2 percent of wild Aquilaria trees ever produce resin. For centuries, scent hunters have indiscriminately cut down old-growth forests in search of the substance, which is burned as incense, carved into ritual objects or distilled into the most valuable natural oil on earth.
Half a teaspoon of oud oil made from 100-year-old trees for Oman’s Sultan Qaboos in 1982 sold to a private collector in 2012 for $7,000. In China, demand for top-quality resin has pushed prices as high as $300,000 per kilogram. Despite a ban on the harvesting of wild Aquilaria by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, such pricing has triggered widespread poaching and a race to perfect sustainable techniques for artificially infecting farmed trees.
Smell of Money
To the $31.6 billion fragrance industry, oud and its aficionados smell like one thing: money. Sales of oud fragrances rose 34 percent in 2012, according to New York-based consumer research firm NPD Group Inc. Such scents were virtually unheard of in the global market before 2002, when Yves Saint Laurent released Tom Ford’s M7, widely acknowledged as the first Western oud fragrance.
Today, out of more than a thousand new scents released annually, one in eight contains oud. The developing taste for oud reflects “trends for intense, intriguing, daring scents that tap into a desire to travel and experience other cultures,” fragrance historian Elena Vosnaki says, and has helped drive sales of prestige male fragrances in the U.S. alone to $953 million. In the past year, Armani, Dior (CDI), Ferrari and even the Body Shop have all jumped on the bandwagon.
Perfumer Kilian Hennessy — the cognac heir who introduced Musk Oud, the latest in his line of oud fragrances, in June under the By Kilian label — caught the bug on a 2008 trip to Dubai, where oud incense wafting through malls, mosques and hotel lobbies has become as signature a scent as lavender is to Grasse, France.
‘Weapon of Seduction’
“To Westerners, men’s fragrance is a weapon of seduction,” Hennessy says. “But to people in the Arab Gulf, oud is comforting, part of their olfactory world and an envelope in which they feel protected.” The oud used in all By Kilian fragrances is synthetic, bioengineered to approximate the real deal. That said, “I have never smelled a synthetic oud that re-creates the complexity and intensity of the real one,” Hennessy says.
According to Robert Blanchette, a forest pathologist at the University of Minnesota, the scent released by the highest-grade natural oud oils comprises more than 150 separate compounds.
“Even with mass spectrometry and gas chromatography, we still don’t have the complete signature,” he says.
Blanchette, who has spent two decades investigating Aquilaria trees in conjunction with the Amsterdam-based Rainforest Project foundation, has patented a technique to artificially infect saplings, 100 percent of which go on to produce resin, although it’s less dense than that of centuries-old trees.
Chemical Signature
“The chemical signature is very close, and our hope is that in the future, it will become a viable source,” he says.
Meanwhile, “harvesting wild trees will eventually kill oud, because of the loss of biodiversity,” says Ensar, an online purveyor of organic oud who declines to reveal his full name and who spends much of the year in Asia seeking out the best resin.
“Aquilaria trees have to fight disease and sometimes die for oud to come into existence,” he says. “I wanted to cry when I cut down a farmer’s 60-year-old tree in Thailand that was fully loaded with resin. It’s all extremely existential.”
“Oud takes a commitment, both financially and in the way you wear it,” Barclay’s Perez says. “I wear it only on special occasions and never to the office. But most of the time, I wear it for myself.”
After the highest grades of wood have been put aside to be sold as incense chips, the remaining agarwood is used for distilling oud oil. But there’s more to it than just boiling heaps of wood.
The first factor that governs the quality of the final oud oil is the quality of the agarwood chips used for distillation. While it is unfeasible to use the highest grades of agarwood to distill oil – lower quality, but still incense grade, wood is used to produce the highest quality of oud oils. The more infected the wood is, the more the resin in the wood that can be distilled.
The age of the tree also has its mark on the final oil. Older trees have a higher resin content, and oud resin gets better with age, much like wine.
The wood is chopped up into small pieces for distillation, and the dust produced from polishing and finishing the incense grade chips is also collected. The wood is commonly soaked in barrels of water for some time to make it easier for the oil to come out when heated.
This is the second factor that governs the quality and smell of the agarwood oil.. Soaked for too short a period of time, the resin might not be as easy to extract from the wood. Soaked for too long, the oil will smell rotten and fecal. Expert distillers have fine-tuned this technique, and have deciphered how long a certain wood should be soaked.
After the soaking process is over, the wood is placed in large stills and has to be cooked at just the right temperature/pressure. This is the third factor that will affect the smell of the oil. Most distillers, in order to save money, cook the wood at very high temperatures and pressures. This is done in the hope of sucking out as much of the agarwood oil in the shortest period of time possible, to cut down labour, fuel, water, and electricity costs.
But the effect of this is clearly discernable in the yielded oil. Pungent, burnt and harsh are some words to describe such oils.
Using the traditional Indian hydro-distillation method, the wood is cooked for several days. The best quality oil comes out first, usually in the first 1-3 days of cooking. This is often referred to as the ‘first distillation’. After this, the wood is cooked further and the second grade of oud is extracted.
Since hydro-distillation is more time and resource consuming, some distillers prefer to use steam distillation.
The type of distillation method used is the fourth factor that affects the smell of the agarwood oil.
Steam distillation entails cooking the oil under gauged pressure using steam instead of boiling water. Oil can be extracted using this technique in as little as one day. However, setting too high a pressure can result in the precious top notes of the oil’s scent acquiring a burnt tar note, so this too takes practice and experience.
The careful control of the pressure is the fifth factor that governs the smell of the oud oil, for steam-distilled oil.
While the traditional hydro-distillation method is commonly used in India, Thailand and Cambodia, steam-distillation is most common in Indonesia, but is also used in Thailand and elsewhere.
There are also other methods of extracting oud oil, like super critical CO2 extraction, but we have dealt with the two most common methods.
After the oil has been distilled, it is filtered, sunned, and aged for a while. The more the oil is aged, the better it will smell.
These were the ‘behind the scene’ processes that take place to produce oud oil.
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 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.
There are two main reasons for wearing oud: for one’s personal enjoyment, and for others.
It is an absolute delight studying the evolution of the complex smell of oud on your skin for hours, for your own enjoyment. Many specimens of oud evoke olfactory memories, and it often becomes a fun exercise trying to identify them.
For one’s personal enjoyment, it is recommended to apply the oil to one’s outer forearm,, 2 – 3 inches above the wrist. Even a tiny amount, the size of a cumin seed, will be sufficient. This is then gently dabbed below the jaw line.
Needless to say, oud oil is so potent that even this tiny amount you apply can scent the entire room you are in.
It is important that you do not rub too hard. There should be a sheen remaining on your arm, after applying to the neck. The skin is highly absorbent, and rubbing too hard will make the oil (and the scent) disappear much faster. It can also damage the scent molecules.
Moisturizing your skin will also ensure that the smell lasts longer.
For the ultimate ‘broadcasting’ effect, there are two ways to use the oil:
Applying to your clothes, bracelet, or other item: This will give you the longest lasting smell as the oil will not be absorbed by the skin. For clothes, it is best to apply a bit to the shoulders, and some to the chest and back of your shirt.
Applying to the skin: while this will not last nearly as long, in most cases the smell will be much more appealing due to the unique chemistry between the skin and oud. Apply the oil just below your outer wrist, then smear it onto your neck. Once again, remember to keep a sheen remaining so don’t rub too hard!
About 1 – 2 healthy swipes of the dip stick should be used if you want to share the beautiful smell of oud with those around you.
Don’t forget that others might not be accustomed to the smell of oud like you! So do not over apply, even if you yourself can not detect too strong a smell. Remember that one’s own nose gets quickly accustomed to the scent due to olfactory fatigue. It’s usually a good idea after applying oud, that you wait about 15 minutes before meeting someone.
Different ouds have different scent lives, and different chemistries with the skin. You may find, for example, that you like your Indian oud best applied to the skin, while you like to have your Cambodian oud scenting your clothes.
What is oud?
Also known as agarwood, aloeswood and jinkou, oud is nature’s most exquisite fragrant offering.
Deep in a Far Eastern jungle, an evergreen tree is attacked by an infection. Much like our bodies’ immune system produces white blood cells, the tree starts producing a substance to combat the infection.
Over the years, the infection grows – as does the substance the tree produces. This is agarwood.
There are few natural aromatics that have as complex a scent spectrum as agarwood (oud). Natural ambergris, musk and rose also rank as some of the most valuable natural fragrances, but none come close to oud in the sheer transcendence and sublimity its fragrance boasts.
More than just a scent, oud can be mentally and spiritually engaging. In fact, specimens from different regions also seem to have an effect on a person’s emotions.
What is the difference between oud and attars/mukhallats/perfumes/colognes?
Attars, mukhallats, perfumes, colognes and other commercially sold fragrances are a combination of different ingredients.
In contrast to the above, with regard to its composition, pure oud oil is itself the fragrance, not being blended with any other ingredients.
This was in regard to the composition. As for the difference in their scents, then none of them can be compared to oud. While many attars and other fragrances can be quite pleasant, oud is more than just a scent, and it engages the one wearing it on many different levels.
Can I combine oud with other fragrances?
Absolutely.
If you are new to oud, you might find that you like it better blended with a cologne, attar or mukhallat because oud itself has a very powerful smell. You might want to tone it down a bit.
However, once you get more and more accustomed and addicted to the fragrance of pure oud,, you might become more reluctant to mix it with anything else.
And that is, in fact, giving oud its due right!
I heard oud is very strong, and I’m afraid I will be overwhelmed
It’s true that oud has one of, if not, the most powerful smell in the world of perfumery. But it is usually the initial hit after application and smelling it right out of the bottle that can be overwhelming for the unexperienced nose. That is why, we strongly recommend starting off by applying very tiny amounts, and not smelling the oils directly.
Over time, as your nose gets used to the smell, you will find the smell of oud an absolute delight in its entirety, from application to the dry down.
Which oud will I like the most?
We recommend you get samples of the different ouds. Many people absolutely love the earthy, barnyard and slightly fecal quality of Hindi (Indian) ouds, while others are all for the sweeter, more ethereal Indonesian specimens.
Ultimately, you may find that you like ouds from all the regions since they all have something unique to offer, even if they all vastly differ in their characters and scent profiles.
Why do different ouds smell so distinctive?
The climates the trees were grown in, the age of the trees, the distillation and aging techniques all have an effect on the smell of different ouds.
How long will the scent last on my skin?
Different oud oils have different scent lives on the skin. You will find some ouds that are of very high quality whose smell will fade before that of much lower grade specimens. The same oil, however, might be incredibly long-lasting if applied to clothes, bracelets, etc.
In general, every oud oil, should be discernable to your nose for a good 2 – 3 hours. After that, your nose may get used to the scent, but those around you will still be able to smell it for hours to come.
How long will a bottle of oud last?
The short answer is: it depends on how frequently you use the oil, and how much you apply.
Used for personal enjoyment, a bottle could last you a whole year or more with daily use. Oud, however, is generally not used as an every-day scent and so a bottle will probably last you much longer.
Is oud gender specific?
Absolutely not.
In the Gulf countries of the Middle East, where oud oil is most celebrated and used, men use oud for special occasions, parties and things of that sort. In Yemen, a gift of oud is an expected part of the dowry that the bride receives from the groom.
Oud is more than just a ‘scent’, which could be classified as masculine and feminine.
Rather, it has so much more to offer, and gender requisite is not a condition to be able to enjoy the offerings of this precious gift of nature.
When should I use oud?
You may initially find that you want to use oud for special occassions.
However, as is usually the case, you may find yourself loving oud so much that you will want to use it daily. In fact, some people even use it several times a day because they can’t get enough of it!
Where do Oud Oils get their distinct aroma?
Oud Oils owe their distinct aromatic scent to naturally-occurring organic compounds called terpenes and terpenoids.
Chemical composition of Oud Oils
A terpene is an organic compound which is widely produced by a variety of plants. These terpenes can be found in the essential oils and resins of plants as well as in the scent glands of flowers, and often are characterised by their strong smell and aromatic qualities.
Chemically, a terpene is an unsaturated hydorocarbon which consists of a combination of isoprene units (C5H8) and have the general formula (C5H8)n. Simple terpenes can be modified chemically through the natural process of oxidisation (reaction with oxygen in the air) to produce more complex compounds known as terpenoids. These natural terpenes and terpenoids are the major constituents of the essential oils of many plants and flowers.
Terpenes are structurally diverse and may take on different molecular structures despite having similar chemical formulae. Subtle variations in the basic terpene molecular structure have resulted in tens of thousands of unique terpene profiles present in our natural environment, each possessing its own unique chemical and aromatic qualities. Some plants may possess a particular terpene profile which gives the plant its distinct flavour. Other plants, on the other hand, may possess an endless variety and combination of terpene profiles, resulting in these plants having a wide diversity of possible aromas and flavours.
Why are Oud Oils so diverse in aroma?
Precisely because of their chemical composition (above). Different terpene profiles can be found even within the same species of agarwood tree. The type of terpene known as sesquiterpenes is an active compound in agarwood. The possible sesquiterpene chemical structures of each extracted agarwood essential oil are endless and coupled with the various rates of oxidation, would result in an even wider diversity of Oud scent profiles.
Factors which may affect a particular Oud Oil’s chemical composition and scent profile includes the age and quality of the agarwood tree’s fungal infection, the age, species, environmental conditions and geographical location of the agarwood tree, the age of the extracted oil and the amount of its exposure to air and sunlight (this affects oxidisation), the type of distillation used and the purity of the oil (blended v. pure, diluted v. undiluted).
Terpenes and terpenoids are known to contribute to the scent of eucalyptus, cinnamon, citrus, cloves, ginger, and menthol, among others, which are just some of the scent notes typically found in Oud.
A good oud can be known by its characteristic. Ouds all differ but one thing remains consistent amongst all the different species and that is the deep note.
When trying to understand the deep note of a quality oud you have to place a drop on the back of your hand and leave it for an hour..Then after an hour you should put your nose on the back of your hand and breathe out through your nose, then immediatly breathe in.
The smell should be continuous and take you on a journey that does not stop.
A fantastic oud will give a story of where it has lived and you can truely imagine the enviroment it grew in. Oils normally float on water but oud oil sinks because of its density. If an oud retails less than £100 it is usually not pure, it almost likely has been cut from a pure source. the reason being is that it takes 1kg of oud woodchips to extract 1ml of oud oil, plus delivery, distillery costs etc, so the cost of the process is a good sign to indicate any oud that retails less than £100 is cut.
Properties of Agar-wood
The fragrance of Agarwood can be described as intriguing and pleasant, with few or no similar natural analogues. As a result, Agar-wood and its essential oil gained great cultural and religious significance in ancient civilizations around the world, being mentioned throughout some of the world’s oldest written texts.
It is said the unique ability of the Agarwood is to gently touch your body, invigorate your mind, purify your spirit and calm your soul. Traditional Chinese medicine is known to use powdered Agar-wood as a treatment for cirrhosis of the liver. Agar-wood is aphrodisiac, thus often used as a cleansing agent of the body organs and boost one’s energy. The diaphoretic property of the wood qualifies it as an effective detoxification agent.
Benefitting from Agar-wood
Indisputably pervasive, the aroma of Agarwood can be described as rich and sentimental, sometimes balsamic and at times vanilla-like sweet. As such, they are extensively used as a ‘protective shield’ against negative energies. Where a space is sometimes ‘afflicted’ the use of Agar-wood is often used to maximum impact as a cure. This could be at home or in the office.
The most beneficial use of Agarwood remains its health returns and healing properties. Its holistic approach towards healing, improving mental capacity, calming of minds, meditative assistance and clearing mental blocks have been proven over the centuries. Insomnia, hyper-activity, disturbed sleep and difficulties in winding down could be easily solved with a small chip of Agar-wood no bigger than 2cm in a special burner in your bedroom. Children unable to focus will also benefit.
Vietnam Agarwood 