Agarwood Beginner's Guide 1

What exactly is agarwood? 🤔 What is it used for? 🤨

No need to Google search, I will tell you here. 😉

First of all, it should be clarified that agarwood ≠ agarwood tree. Although they differ by only one character, they are completely different things!

1. ''Agarwood'' is not the specific name of a certain tree, but refers to plants in the Thymelaeaceae family that can produce ''agarwood''.

2. Agarwood is not actually wood, but rather a fragrant ''resin''. If it doesn't produce oil or agarwood, then it's just an ordinary plant with no value. This resin is known as the essence of the sun and moon nurtured by heaven and earth because its formation requires many coincidences and specific conditions, and even then, it takes several decades to several hundred years to form.

What are the conditions for the formation of agarwood?

The trunk of the agarwood tree contains a type of parasitic fungus. When the trunk is attacked or injured by natural disasters, it secretes and accumulates a type of ''oil'' to protect itself, just like our wounds form scabs. This oil gradually evolves over a long period of time into the fragrant agarwood.

😁 What's special is the fragrant aroma of the agarwood produced from the tree's wounds has a rich and varied scent, which varies according to the tree's growing environment. For example, different latitudes, soils, causes of injury (such as wind damage, lightning strikes, insect infestations), and types of infected fungi can create completely different fragrances, which is also the most fascinating aspect of agarwood.

1、Specific tree species:

There are four major families of trees that can produce agarwood:

Laurel/Olive family - produced in Europe and the Americas, with poor quality that cannot produce fragrance, only used for distillation of oil.

Euphorbia family - produced in Taiwan, with artificially planted trees that do not produce high-quality agarwood.

Thymelaeaceae family - produced in tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia. This is recognized as the best quality agarwood family, and all the wild agarwood produced on the market is mainly from this family. There are three main types:

Guangxiang tree: distributed in Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Hainan Island.

Mixiang tree: distributed in Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. (Myanmar, Thailand, and India have been overexploited).

Eaglewood tree: distributed in Malaysia and Indonesia. The appearance of the agarwood from this family is gray-brown, and there are black lines in the wood meat, resembling eagle feathers.

Like other plants, different types of agarwood trees can cross-pollinate and evolve. Originally, the production area of the Mixiang tree can interbreed with Guangxiang trees in the north due to geographical reasons, and interbreed with eaglewood trees in the south.

2、Mature and well-developed tree resin in the trunk (usually takes more than 30 years).

3、External injuries

Sick wood is more valuable than gold. Agarwood is the result of agarwood trees ''producing pearls from shellfish diseases''. Agarwood trees must be damaged by lightning strikes, wind, insect bites, etc., to form wounds that reach deep into the woody layer (if the wound is too shallow and heals too quickly, it will not produce agarwood). Moreover, the wound needs to be infected by fungi and cause disease to have the possibility of producing agarwood.

4、Long-term refining

The oil and grease slowly accumulate at the wound, forming a paste-like lump. This fragrant lump, mixed with the wood structure of the tree, is called ''agarwood.''

Although there are now ''artificial incense'' techniques for planting and cultivating agarwood that can ensure the generation of agarwood and greatly shorten the time it takes to produce it, it is still going against nature. The agarwood produced by artificial means, whether in terms of aroma or efficacy, cannot compare with wild agarwood. After all, the existence of agarwood that is nurtured by the essence of heaven and earth is irreplaceable.

What are the benefits of agarwood?

The aroma of agarwood can affect people's senses and emotions.

One use of agarwood is to help people calm their minds and sleep. Because the fragrance is elegant, has a natural sweetness that is pleasing, and does not contain any artificial fragrances, it does not have a pungent smell, and the energy inside the body is also increased. After smelling the fragrance, the energy inside the body will move upwards, which is very comfortable to smell, and can help people calm their minds and sleep. ❤️