Agarwood

Overview

Originally distributed in Assam, Bangladesh, Borneo, East Himalaya, Malaya, Myanmar, Philippines, Sumatra, Thailand, and Vietnam. Referred to fragrance wood, utilized for producing perfumes, oil, incense or herbal medicine. The aromatic resin obtained from this tree is one of the most famous and most expensive on the planet. The resin is produced by the tree in response to infection by a parasitic ascomycetous (Phaeoacremonium parasitic) a dematiaceous (dark-walled) fungus. This plant is listed as vulnerable in the IUCN Red List (2009) and is considered critically endangered in India.

Vernacular Names

Oud (Arabic), Chen xiang (Chinese), Bois d’aigle (French), Aguru (India), Jinko (Japanese), Ghara (Papua New Guinea), Palisan (Tagalog-Philippines), Tram hu'o'ng (Vietnamese), Gaharu (Indonesia).

Agroecology

An upper canopy tree, commonly found scattered in dense primary forest and the more open, secondary formations, mainly in plains but also on hillsides and ridges up to 750 m. Mostly by rivers and streams and on ridges with sandy soils. Grows best in undulating terrain in the moister lowland tropics, being found at elevations of 200-700 m. Prefers heavy soils developed from gneiss and other metamorphic rocks, but it also grows well on sandy loams developed from sandstone.

Morphology

• Barks - whitish, and smooth.
• Leaves - simple, alternate, smooth, blade elliptically oblong, chartaceous to subcoriaceous, glabrous, sometimes pubescent and glabrescent beneath, shiny on both surfaces, base acute, attenuate or obtuse, apex acuminate, acumen up to 2 cm long.
• Flowers - 5-merous, green to yellow, about 1.5 cm long, scattered puberulous outside, floral tube nearly glabrous inside.
• Fruits - loculicidal capsule, obovoid or obovoid-cylindrical, 3-4 cm x 2.5 cm, pubescent, glabrescent, base cuneate, apex rounded, pericarp woody.
• Seeds - ovoid compressed, 10 mm x 6 mm including a beak 4 mm long, densely redhaired, bearing from the base a twisted, tail-like, pubescent appendage as long as the seed.

Cultivation

Propagated by seeds - sown about 5 mm deep in a mixture of soil, sand and manure and kept under light shade. Ready for transplanting when 30-35 cm tall and 10-12 months old.

Chemical Constituents

Neopetasane (eremophilane), β-agarofuran, ()-guaia-1(10),11-dien-15-al, 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromone, mangiferin, iriflophenone 3,5-C-β-diglucoside, genkwanin. 5-O-β-primeveroside, stigmasterol, 3b-friedelanol, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, syringic acid and isovanillic acid.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• Considered hemostatic, carminative, heart stimulant, and tonic.
• The incense is used against cancer, especially of the thyroid gland.
• In China, it is applied as a sedative against abdominal complaints, asthma, colics and diarrhea, and as an aphrodisiac and carminative.
• Agarwood is an astringent, antidiabetics, treatment for joint pain and gout, stimulant, tonic herb that relieves spasms, especially of the digestive and respiratory systems, and lowers fevers.
• In traditional Chinese medicine, agarwood is used as a qi-regulating drug and carminative to relieve gastric problems, rheumatism, and high fever. Grated wood enters into various preparations used especially during and after childbirth, and to treat rheumatism, smallpox and abdominal pains. Decoctions of the wood are said to have anti-microbial properties, e.g. against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Shigella flexneri.
• Bark and roots are used for stopping the flow of blood from wounds.
• Bark, wood and fruit are used as substitute for quinine.
• In Malaysia, agarwood is used to treat jaundice and body pains. Also used as tonic during pregnancy and after childbirth.
• In India, agarwood has been used as carminative, antiasthmatic, antidiarrhea, antidysenteric; used in gout, rheumatism, paralysis, and as stimulant in sexual debility.