It is true that Agarwood/Aloeswood/Oudh Oil is the most precious and expensive oil product on Earth, today valued over pure gold.
Due to over-harvesting of entire forests as well as the incredibly labor intensive process of artisan distillation, 2012 retail prices around the globe have increased significantly and are generally US$8,000-US$32,000 and up for a kilogram of Aloeswood chips and anywhere from US$8,000-US$61,000 for a single litre of pure Aloeswood Oil. Difficult to believe, but it happens every day on the world markets.
The Aquilaria species is native to India, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Borneo, Laos, Pakistan, Indonesia, Burma, New Guinea, Malaysia, and Philippines.
The Oudh we source is artisanally distilled in Assam from Aquilaria Agallocha. Since ancient times, Assam was the richest area of natural occurring Agarwood trees. There are 15 species of Aquilaria in the world but only 8 produce resin in response to a fungal attack.
This ‘Wood and Oil of the Gods’ is also called: oudh, oud, aoud, ud, agar, aloes, agarwood, aloeswood, gaharu, kyara, eaglewood, bois d’aigle, kinam, telugu, aguru, agaru, jinkoh, chien-xiang, tram huong, cham heong, sasi, sashi, akil, mai kritsana and mai ketsana.
Then there is the tale of a wealthy Japanese businessman who is said to have purchased two exquisite pieces of Aloeswood suitable for sculpture and paid the equivalent of US$100,000 for one of the pieces and US$272,000 for the other. Can this be true?
The aroma of Oudh is deeply spiritual in nature and connects us with our ancient past. Oudh is used around the world for religious occasions by Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi, Shinto and Japanese Shamanic as well as others.
It is written in the Qur’an that Aloeswood contains 7 cures, and it is known to be the Biblical ahaloth [aloes] of King Solomon in the Old Testament ‘Song of Solomon’ written more than 30 centuries ago. There are many who believe a cutting of the Aloeswood tree was taken by Adam from the Garden of Eden. The facts will forever remain a great mystery of history.
Oudh was used by the Prophet of Islam [peace be upon him], and he praised it as one of the three most beloved things the worldly life had to offer.
Oudh was praised by the Buddha as being ‘the scent of Nirvana’ and is mentioned in the third century Chinese chronicle Nan Zhou Yi Wu Zhi.
It is known that the Japanese Samurai warriors scented their armor with Agarwood smoke for protection before going into battle and King Louis XIV of France had his shirts washed only in water that had previously been used to boil Agarwood.
The People of the Gulf States are said to always seek the absolute best quality Oudh aroma profiles but are not always so highly concerned whether it’s natural or synthetic in purity, although alcohol is totally forbidden by religion. Traditionally, culturally and religiously, both the oil and the wood have been revered for many centuries. Used in Holy ceremonies and still considered Holy in this modern day.
Our Oudh is always 100% pure and natural and is appropriate and acceptable for use in religious purposes and holy occasions.
In the New Testament of the Christian Bible it is written that Aloes and Myrrh of ‘one hundred weight’ were brought to Nicodemus to be used in the tomb to anoint the body of the Christian Savior Jesus Christ,, and a legend says that Aloeswood was burned at the funeral of Jesus.
From the 5000 year old Sanskrit Bhagavata Purana:
‘The men and women of the city, arrayed in spotless raiment and anointed with fragrant sandalwood paste, wore precious necklaces, flower garlands and jeweled ornaments, and their opulent homes were filled with the aroma of Aguru.’
Given the significance of this exalted substance in the world religious and cultural traditions, the history of this substance speaks volumes before you ever smell it. For millennia, people have felt a deep spiritual attraction to Oudh and realize they must acquire some.
Although there are a number of high-end Western perfumes and colognes available today with ‘Oudh’ in their name, most of them contain very little true Aloeswood/Agarwood oil. In others, the Oudh contained is synthetic, and some are Oudh in name only, containing no Aloeswood/Agarwood oil at all, either natural or synthetic. Among others, the world famous luxury fragrances Zeenat and Amouage do indeed contain the precious Aloeswood/Agarwood oil.
Oudh is an somewhat of an acquired taste. It’s aroma is virtually unknown to the Western nose but the Eastern nose is well educated.
In modern times, the Ayurvedic, Tibetan, Arabic, Unani and Traditional Chinese Medical practices use Aloeswood oil and Aloeswood in various ways such as for certain medical remedies and even to treat particular diseases. It is used as a light sedative to calm the mind and spirit, relax the nervous system, relieve emotional anxieties and mental illness and invoke a sense of peace, strength and serenity, enhance cerebral functioning, purify the liver and balance the organs, treat insomnia, digestive ailments and abdominal problems,, certain obsessive behaviors, relieve pain, sore throat, vomiting, increase alertness, expel negative energies and open the upper chakras.
In addition to the warming qualities and medical properties of Agarwood/Aloeswood, it is also known as an aphrodisiac and is still used today in various gourmet culinary preparations.
To the uninitiated nose, Oudh can sometimes overwhelm the senses but those potent initial notes are only the 1st movement of a concerto of ancient aroma profiles that resonate in a pure Oudh. We’re quite pleased with the potency, tenacity and aroma profiles of both of our currently available Assam oils [1A and AA].
In wearing a “deep dark resonating oudh with a nice bit of barnyardy at first swipe” such as the Assam Oudhs [which I personally favor] only a tiny amount is used at a time, unless you’re making a bold statement [which we also favor].
Expect the aroma profile of the Hindi Assam Oudh to last for 8-12 hours on skin, depending on physical activity and body chemistry of the person wearing it, and generally lasting for 15+ days on cloth.
Oudh is worn worldwide by men and women alike. It is one of the true natural wonders given to mankind and should be experienced by the connoisseur, the person of Spirituality, and all who are serious about Aromatherapy.
Eaglewood Slimming Tea is a unique caffeine and sugar free 14-day tea detox that contains healthy weight loss inducing ingredients such as:
Crushed Eaglewood (Oud) tree leaves from 3 different species that are known for their anti-oxidants and detoxifying properties
Nigella Sativa powdered seeds which strengthens your immune system
Natural herbs that help to induce your system to burn fat and induce appetite suppression to aid you in your weight loss goals
These ingredients have been around for centuries and are proven for their many health benefits. Nigella Sativa seeds are widely used in the Middle Eastern culture for as far back as 3 millennia and are effective as a purge against different ailments.. The leaves from the ancient and increasingly rare Oud trees are widely used in the Japanese culture special tea ceremonies and are proven to contain immense beauty and health benefits.
Directions for use:
Infuse one sachet of EST upon waking up, into a cup filled with 3/4 of almost boiling water. Leave the cup sitting for a good 5-7 minutes before you take your sip to make sure the tea is saturated. Leave the teabag inside the cup throughout the duration of your drink. You can have a maximum of 2-3 refills using the same sachet.
Frequency:
1 cup every morning although you can go up to 3 cups with the same sachet on a single day. If you somehow forget about your morning intake – don’t sweat it. Just drink up during the day whenever you remember. EST does not contain any laxative ingredients and does not cause you to have a temporal weight loss through the laxative effect. EST aids by increasing your metabolism through its rare ingredients to effectively and permanently burn the fats.
For best results, we recommend to take your EST without any additional sweeteners.
Distilling agarwood and processing the resinated heartwood involves cycles of laborious work. After the felling of the tree, it begins with the tremendous task of chopping the tree trunk and segregating it to serve the different purposes. The white wood and barely resinated sectors of the tree trunk and branches usually go into the distillation stills while the resinous part of the Oud wood is processed and cleaned further as these valuables are meant for fumigation use. The leaves are collected and filtered for agarwood tea production while the leftover pile of agarwood waste material in the stills, after the completion of its distillation, is collected to make agarwood cones and incense sticks.
Depending on the size of the tree, it can take up to a week or more for the whole trunk and branches to be segregated according to its different intentions. For woods meant to be distilled into pure Oud oils,, it will take further laborious work to shred the wood into smaller pieces, before it can be thrown into the wood grinder to make into the size of wood shavings and sawdust. Only then will the agarwood material be fit for distillation.
In this particular small sized distillery on the outskirts of an ancient jungle, north east of Borneo, the woodhunters had just felled a wild tree which grew in an area that had just been privatised. This 2560kg agarwood tree was already labelled to be felled due to its amazing resin content a couple of years prior, after the discovery of its resinous core through the scraping of the tree’s bark.
Every single bit and part of this amazing agarwood tree was already sold even before it was felled. Towards the end of the night of the first distillation, there had been signs of a great yield – averaging 0.94ml for every kilo in the stills.
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.
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In the luxurious world of scent, what could be more desirable than the elusive and seductive smell of oud? By Rhona Wells
Oud comes from the wood of the tropical Agar (Aquilaria) tree, believed to have originated in the Assam region of India, and from there spread throughout Southeast Asia. When the wood of the Agar tree gets infected with a certain mould variety (Phialophora parasitica), it reacts by producing a dark and fragrant resin, which is the perfume ingredient oud (also called agarwood).
High quality oud is a true dark gold, its fragrance ethereal and complex, blending nuances of ambergris, sweet incense, tobacco and wood. The lower grades, on the other hand, have a sharp, dark, less nuanced and pleasant scent.. Its rich fragrance is used for scenting mosques, favoured rooms in the home, and frequently clothes in the Middle East. It is rumoured that its fragrance that can ward off the evil eye as well as attract lovers.
Oud is also used in incense bokhurs (incense blends) and the bark chips retail at prices varying form 17000AED ($4700) a kilo to 23000 AED/kilo ($6200) de- pending on the quality of the bark chip, used for burning, according to an authority based in Sharjah in the UAE
Oud has a long history of use in the Eastern and Middle Eastern parts of the world; Buddhist monks used it for meditation, saying it aids in the transmuta- tion of ignorance. Tibetan monks believe it calms the mind and spirit; Sufis use it for esoteric ceremonies; in China it is considered to have psychoactive properties and in in Ancient Egypt, it was used by the Pharaohs for embalming. Certainly Oud has been used as incense, an aromatic oil and medicine for thousands of years. The Prophet Mohammed mentions it in the Koran 1400 years ago; “Treat with Indian Oud, for it has healing for seven diseases”.
Due to its rarity, high demand, and the difficulty of harvesting it, oud oil is perhaps the most expensive oil in the world. Its value is estimated as 1.5 times of the value of gold, which is the reason it is sometimes referred to as
‘liquid gold’. Because of the immense popularity of this plant-matter for oil, perfume and incense, the trees are now endangered species, protected world-wide under the CITES convention and by a variety of laws in different countries. Oud (in Arabic ‘oudh’) is also highly valued by perfumers for its sweet, woody, aromatic and complex scent. It is used in forms of oud oil (dehn al oud) or resin (oud mubakhar).
Use of scent in the Middle East is prolific. Consumers in the region spend five times as much on perfume as their European counterparts and in the higher class malls and expensive shops the scent of Arabian oud is all-pervading.
The fragrance market in the Mena region alone is currently worth $4bn and predicted to carry on growing at 15% a year over the next four years.
An average Arab male consumer, uses three bottles of the scent at the same time, one in the car, one in the office and one in the home, according to Abdulla Ajmal, Deputy General Manager of Ajmal Perfumes, one of the of leading fragrance houses in the region, selling locally over 17m bottles of scent a year.
As for women, they can be layering up to seven fragrances at the same time, thus creating their own unique signature sillage. According to Shahzad Halder, chairman of the Fragrance Foundation Arabia, the fact that “oud is a scent deeply rooted in tradition adds to its global appeal. As people travel the world, they experience new scents they then want to find when they return home”. This he feels has led to the success of the oud note, fast on the way to becoming a real new fragrance trend of the 21st century.
In the Middle East, local oud-dealers have ruled the market but increasingly, international fragrance houses are looking to tap into the region’s wealth of fragrance users by introducing their own Arabian scent, thus hoping not only to capture the regional market, but also to offer new exciting scents to the world. Philippe Tarasoff, Regional Director of the luxury division L’Oreal Middle East decided to embrace oud’s mystique early on, launc ing Armani Prive Royal Oud in 2008. In 2011, Van Cleef & Arpels launched Precious Oud, as part of their Collection Extraordinaire, underlining the luxury concept, more in name than in scent terms.
The trend has really been taking off with many new fragrances joining the fray; in April 2012, Maison Francis Kurkdjian launched their “Oud”, a scent that truly show- cases the deep woody notes of the oil. Le Labo launched Oud 27 (with 27 ingredients) in upmarket outlets such as Liberty’s of London to satisfy the consumer demand for this note. Not to be left out, in August 2012, Christian Dior launched Oud Ispahan, Created by perfumer Francois Demachy, the fragrance aims to provide the user with “an immediate impression, an instant snapshot of Middle Eastern mystique.” Italian niche house, Acqua di Parma, has launched Colonia Intensa Oud available through exclusive boutiques and outside Italy in Har- rods (London). Joining in, in November 2012, Givenchy introduced Eaudemoiselle de Givenchy Bois de Oud.
Oud also plays a starring role in several 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.
From the Middle East, Ajmal have expanded as far as Malaysia, underlining the globalness of this phenomena. In European capitals, such as London, Oud Arabian, Swiss Arabian and Rassasi, who all offer an Oud collection as well as single note fragrances, are all enjoy- ing great popularity, and not just with Arabs. Oman’ s Amouage fragrance house is also present with exclusive distribution and retail outlets popping up around the world. Their latest launch, Amouage Epic for women is an ode to oud.
Capturing both the imagination and the heart, oud once smelled can never be forgotten. Popular fragrances come and go but from its confirmed use in the 13th century to present day local and international perfumes, oud remains in pride of place in the 21st century fragrance market.
Actually there is no special way to burn aloes wood (agarwood) you only needs charcoal that have been burnt until it is red, then place the Agarwood over the charcoal which would you burn.
But there is also a unique way, some people do something else in burning aloes wood (agarwood), there is little difference, that is, before the aloes wood (agarwood) is placed above the charcoal,, they put aloes wood (agarwood) into their mouths, suck the small chips of aloeswood that they will burn, not a big piece of aloes wood (agarwood), the point is, they dampen the aloes wood with saliva, so that if you burn it over charcoal, then the wood will burned slightly – by little, burn longer than wood that has not dampened.
If you put aloe dried over charcoal, charcoal will directly burn the wood immediately, if the wood was wet, it will not directly burned, the wood will burn longer.
I do not teach you dirty, you can use the water, without need to use saliva, you just dip in water, then sprinkle and place it over charcoal.
Tips of burning Agarwood
When burning Oud wood chips, it is always better to burn it ‘clean’ on a mica plate that can commonly be found for burning incense. This will ensure that you get a ‘cleaner’ scent out of your burned Oud wood, as burning on coal requires that you not prepare the coal too hot, lest you will have some ‘coal scent notes’ together with your Oud wood scent during fumigation.
The best way to optimally heat up the coal is not through the stove but rather by a blowtorch lighter you can get for lighting up cigars. Just aim to torch the far sides of the 4 sided squarish coal instead of the middle part of it, and immediately place your Oud chip on the middle spot once you have done lighting. The heat from the sides will slowly move up to the middle of the coal and will give the slow burning effect on your Oud. The scent will be longer lasting and better smelling (without the coal notes) this way. The traditional way of burning is with a burner and coal and that is how we like to do it.
Much like musical notes make up a song and various shades of colors turn into a painting, fragrance notes are necessary to make a perfume / oud. Overall, there are three note scales that when blended together create the perfume’s fragrant accord. Each of these levels, however, has its own primary purpose.
Top Notes
Also sometimes referred to as the opening notes or head notes, the top notes of a fragrance are generally the lightest of all the notes. They are recognized immediately upon application of the perfume.. The top notes are also the first to fade given their light molecular structure, but this does not mean they aren’t of utmost importance.
The top notes of a fragrance represent the first impression. How many times have you tested a fragrance only to be turned off right away? Why? Because the top notes didn’t make a lasting impression on you. It is hugely important that the top notes not only succeed at luring you in, but also smoothly transition into the heart of the fragrance.
Common fragrance top notes include citrus (lemon, orange zest, bergamot), light fruits (grapefruit, berries) and herbs (clary sage, lavender).
Middle Notes
The middle notes, or the heart notes, make an appearance once the top notes evaporate. The middle notes are considered the heart of the fragrance. They last longer than the top notes and have a strong influence on the base notes to come. A perfume’s heart is generally pleasant and well-rounded. It is ofen a smooth combination of floral or fruit tones; sometimes infused with spices like cinnamon, nutmeg or cardamom.
Common fragrance middle notes include geranium, rose, lemongrass, ylang ylang, lavender, coriander, nutmeg, neroli and jasmine.
Base Notes
The base notes are the final fragrance notes that appear once the top notes are completely evaporated. The base notes mingle with the heart notes to create the full body of the fragrance, but are typically associated with the dry-down period. The job of the base notes is to provide the lasting impression. These often rich notes linger on the skin for hours after the top notes have dissipated.
Common fragrance base notes include cedarwood, sandalwood, vanilla, amber, patchouli, oakmoss and musk.
Without the combination of the three levels of notes, a fragrance / Oud just wouldn’t be aromatically appealing. But together, they create beautiful scents.
Sillage (pronounced as see-yazh) is a term used to describe a scented trail left by the fragrance wearer. It comes from the French word for “wake,” as in the trail left in the sky by an airplane or on the water by a boat. Sillage defines how fragrance diffuses around the wearer, and a strong sillage means that a fragrance projects well. Sillage has nothing to do with the richness of the composition, however, but rather with the diffusive nature of the materials that go into it. For instance, hedione, fresh floral notes and some types of musk are extremely diffusive and radiant, while retaining an airy, light character.
There are only three distillation methods for oud oil: steam, hydro and CO2 extraction. The latter is seldom used save in large-scale productions. The results are far from impressive, with a pasty, sticky, solid at room temperature wax as the end product. The scent is impaired by the extraction of non-resin particles along with the agarwood essence.
Steam distillation is widely used in Indonesia..Unsure about the benefits of using steam, considering that normally the oil is subjected to temperatures above 300 degrees fahrenheit. Some of our distillers harbor an intense dislike for steam distillation when it comes to oud. Yet some oud , were steam distilled.
Then we have classic hydro distillation. Simple chemistry: you boil the wood and the resin rises to the top; from there you funnel it into a glass vessel where it gathers over the course of several days, floating atop the water. This is the oldest, most widely used method in Southeast Asia and Assam. The oud oils posted in this blog were extracted via this method.
Distillation can get real high tech, with different material tubes for different steps of the process. You can have, for example, a stainless steel boiler with copper tubes that the oil travels through; or a fully stainless unit; or a fully copper one; or a copper still with stainless tubes; or different material tubes for different parts of the process. The possibilities are endless.
With steam distillation, you get agarwood oil that was heated up to a certain temperature and then separated from the condensed steam, with the resultant oil potentially impaired by the high temperature. In hydro distillation, the raw materials are in close contact with water for a period of several days or even months. The water has an almost magical effect on the oil, changing its character dramatically depending on how long it stays immersed, the type of water it is boiled in (spring, rain, ground water), the chemical breakdown of the water itself, salt and mineral content, etc.
Whether you get a fecal, a fruity or a woody, a dark or a light, a leathery or a green smelling oud oil depends a great deal on the water you use to cook the raw materials!
Vietnam Agarwood 