In a natural forest, only one out of 1,000 to 1,500 Aquilaria trees produces agarwood, and only one out of 10,000 to 20,000 trees yields aloeswood.
What are Aloeswood and Agarwood?
Phùng Tuấn Giang, President of the International Organization for Natural Healing in Vietnam, explains that aloeswood is a rare and valuable type of wood found in nature. It is the wood that contains a large amount of fragrant resin produced by the Aquilaria tree.
The formation process of aloeswood is similar to that of agarwood. It is believed that agarwood forms as a result of the host tree’s immune response to injury or infection. This can occur due to disease, injury, or environmental factors.
The Aquilaria tree must endure severe impacts from nature or be harmed by organisms, such as natural disasters causing cracks or broken branches, decay, or being cut down, as well as termites boring into the trunk or fungal infections. The injury must retain water through a rainy season before the tree begins to exude resin around the wound as a self-protective mechanism to heal it.
The dark, mottled part is where agarwood is found on the tree. (Photo: M.K).
The wood area commonly referred to as agarwood includes both aloeswood and agarwood. Some believe that agarwood is formed when the Aquilaria tree is damaged, while aloeswood accumulates resin and essential oils without injury.
According to Dr. Giang, in China, aloeswood is regarded as the highest quality agarwood due to its high resin concentration and subtle fragrance that can be detected easily without burning, making it worth tens of times more than regular agarwood. Aloeswood is the soft, resin-rich wood with a high essential oil content.
The essential oil of aloeswood is red, viscous like beeswax, and has a gentle, enduring natural fragrance. The aloeswood itself has a high specific gravity, causing it to sink in water.
The Values of Agarwood and Aloeswood
The fragrance and perfumes produced from agarwood have been valued for centuries and are used in many cultures for spiritual purposes. Agarwood is highly revered in the spiritual texts of Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam.
The spiritual significance of agarwood has been emphasized in ancient texts often referred to as “the essence of life” and is used as fragrant smoke to connect spiritually with the heavens and as offerings in worship rituals.
The historical use of agarwood is closely tied to cultures where it has deeply penetrated cultural experiences, such as the Middle East, India, China, and Japan. Agarwood has always been considered one of the most valued types of wood used as a base for fragrances, perfumes, other aromatic products, and medicinal preparations.
The use of agarwood in medicine has been documented in the medical literature of Greece, Rome, China, the Middle East, and Europe. Its application in traditional Eastern medicine has also been recorded. Traditional medicine uses it as a sedative, pain reliever, digestive aid, and natural gas expeller.
The demand and trade of agarwood continue to this day, and with the growing wealth in consumer countries in recent decades, demand has exceeded supply. This has led to rising prices, depletion of natural resources, reduced product quality, and increased interest in cultivating and developing resin extraction methods.
Chemical Composition and Pharmacological Effects
Dr. Giang further states that agarwood is considered the most valuable wood product used for both perfumes and medicine. The quality of agarwood plays a crucial role in determining its commercial value, particularly because aloeswood is a high-quality and rare type of agarwood, making it extremely valuable.
To date, over 250 compounds have been identified, mainly sesquiterpenoids, chromones, and volatile aromatic compounds. The fragrance of agarwood is a complex mixture of many volatile components, creating its unique aroma.
The raw extracts and some isolated compounds exhibit anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-cancer, antioxidant, anti-ischemic, antibacterial, liver-protective, laxative, and neuroprotective properties. These pharmacological effects have been reported by numerous studies worldwide, demonstrating the medicinal benefits of agarwood in traditional medicine.
Agarwood is used in various ethnic communities, with most of its therapeutic applications related to anti-inflammatory activities and related functions. For example, it is used to treat rheumatism in Bangladesh and Indonesia.
“However, most pharmacological studies on agarwood are conducted on raw extracts and are quite limited on isolated compounds. Agarwood is considered safe based on tested dosages. However, more research is needed to assess the safety of the smoke produced when agarwood is burned,” Dr. Giang noted.
In China, it is used to treat diarrhea, dysentery, vomiting, loss of appetite, oral diseases, facial paralysis, tremors, sprains, fractures, rheumatism, cardiac arrhythmias, cough, asthma, leprosy, headaches, gout, and arthritis. In Japan, it has laxative and sedative effects.
In South Korea, agarwood is used to treat coughs, bronchitis, asthma, as a tonic, sedative, and expectorant…
