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What is Agarwood?
 Agarwood
is a resinous wood that sometimes occurs in trees belonging to the Aquilaria
genus, Thymelaeceae family. Aquilaria is a fast-growing, archaic tropical forest
tree, which occurs in South and Southeast Asia, from the foothills of the
Himalayas to the rainforests of Papua New Guinea. The tree grows in natural
forests at an altitude of a few meters above sea level to about 1000 meters, and
it grows best around 500 meters. It can grow on a wide range of soils, including
poor sandy soil. Seedlings need a lot of shade and water. Trees grow very fast,
and start producing flowers and seeds as early as four years old. At least
fifteen species of Aquilaria trees are known to produce the much sought-after
Agarwood. In South Asia Aquilaria achalloga is found, particularly in India,
Aquilaria malaccensis is mostly known from Malaysia and Indonesia, and Aquilaria
crassna principally grows in Indochina. A number of other species are known such
as Aquilaria grandfolia, Aquilaria chinesis etc.
Usage
The “Wood of the Gods” has been traded and highly appreciated for thousands of
years. Resinous wood is used as incense, for medicinal purposes, and pure resin
in distilled form is used as perfume and perfume component. Outside native
countries it is most widely known in the Middle East, China, Taiwan and Japan. A
strong connection exists between use, religion and curative properties, and
elaborate traditional and religious ceremonies are known from around the world.
Faith healers in the Middle East use it at curative ceremonies, Japanese
pilgrims donate flowers and Agarwood oil to Shinto-Buddhist temples, and
Vietnamese religious groups are obliged to bring Agarwood to ceremonies at their
temples in Mekong delta communities.
 Value
The value of first-grade Agarwood is extremely high. A whole range of qualities
and products is on the market varying with geographical location and cultural
deposition. Prices range from a few dollars per kilo for the lowest quality to
over thirty thousand US dollars for top quality oil and resinous wood. Aquilaria
crassna is listed as an endangered species in Viet Nam, and A. malaccensis is
listed as endangered by the World Conservation Union, IUCN.
Extinction
Resin producing trees are endangered throughout their known habitat all
across Southeast Asia. The main driving force, which initiated this project, was
the recognition of unsustainable Aquilaria harvesting in natural forests that
resulted in the near extinction of this tree genus in Viet Nam and elsewhere.
Aquilaria crassna is now listed as a protected species in Viet Nam, and
Aquilaria malaccensis is a CITES red data book listed tree. Trade and harvesting
restrictions will be virtually impossible to achieve if no alternative is
developed to forest-based harvesting. In addition, both in the short and
long-term, a natural resource base needs to be maintained to supply present and
future Aquilaria plantations with genetic source material, in order to prevent
plant decease, maintain diversity and possibly improve resin production.
 Substitutes
Development of synthetic substitutes usually arises when sustainable supplies of
the natural product are not available. One of the first questions pursued when
contemplating the previous pilot project was: “is it possible to synthesize
Agarwood and Agarwood oil?” The answer is a qualified no. Agarwood cannot be
synthesized. Chemical substitutes are already available for perfume; these are
cheap and constitute the least profitable end of the market. In addition, these
products do not come even close in mimicking the natural product and thus do not
pose a threat to producing naturally based Agarwood products. The major chemical
components responsible for the characteristic scent of Agarwood products,
sesquiterterpenes, can in principle be synthesized. However, these are very
complicated structures that will be extremely expensive to synthesize, which
makes it commercially completely unattractive.
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