A Brief History of Agarwood and the Aquilaria Tree

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REF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquilaria

History

The odour of agarwood is complex and pleasing, with few or no similar natural analogues. As a result, agarwood and its essential oil gained great cultural and religious significance in ancient civilizations around the world, being mentioned throughout one of the world's oldest written texts – the Sanskrit Vedas from India.

As early as the third century AD in ancient China, the chronicle Nan zhou yi wu zhi (Strange things from the South) written by Wa Zhen of the Eastern Wu Dynasty mentioned agarwood produced in the Rinan commandery, now Central Vietnam, and how people collected it in the mountains.

Starting in 1580 after Nguyễn Hoàng took control over the central provinces of modern Vietnam, he encouraged trade with other countries, specifically China and Japan. Agarwood was exported in three varieties: Calambac (kỳ nam in Vietnamese), trầm hương (very similar but slightly harder and slightly more abundant), and agarwood proper. A pound of Calambac bought in Hội An for 15 taels could be sold in Nagasaki for 600 taels. The Nguyễn Lords soon established a Royal Monopoly over the sale of Calambac. This monopoly helped fund the Nguyễn state finances during the early years of the Nguyen rule.

Xuanzang's travelogues and the Harshacharita, written in seventh century AD in Northern India, mentions use of agarwood products such as 'Xasipat' (writing-material) and 'aloe-oil' in ancient Assam (Kamarupa). The tradition of making writing materials from its bark still exists in Assam.

Agarwood is known under many names in different cultures:

• In Urdu (Pakistan), it is known as agar(in Bengali, also aguru).
  
  
• It is known by the same Sanskrit name in Telugu and Kannada as Aguru.
  
  
• It is known as chénxiāng (沉香) in Chinese, "Cham Heong" inCantonese, trầm hương in Vietnamese, and jinkō (沈香) in Japanese; all meaning "sinking incense" and alluding to its high density. In Japan, there are several grades of jinkō, the highest of which is known as kyara (伽羅).
  
  
• Both agarwood and its resin distillate/extracts are known as oud(عود) in Arabic (literally "rod/stick") and used to describe agarwood in nations and areas in Arabic countries.[9] Western perfumers may also use agarwood essential oil under the name "oud" or "oude".
  
  
• In Europe it was referred to as Lignum aquila (eagle-wood) orAgilawood, because of the similarity in sound of agila to gaharu.
  
  
• Another name is Lignum aloes or Aloeswood. This is potentially confusing, since a genus Aloe exists (unrelated), which has medicinal uses.
  
  
• In Tibetan it is known as ཨ་ག་རུ་ (a-ga-ru). There are several varieties used in Tibetan Medicine: unique eaglewood: ཨར་བ་ཞིག་ (ar-ba-zhig); yellow eaglewood: ཨ་ག་རུ་སེར་པོ་ (a-ga-ru ser-po), white eaglewood: ཨར་སྐྱ་ (ar-skya), and black eaglewood: ཨར་ནག་(ar-nag).
  
  
• In Assamese it is called as "sasi" or "sashi".
  
  
• The Indonesian and Malay name is "gaharu".
  
  
• In Papua New Guinea it is called "ghara" or eaglewood.
  
  
• In Thai language it is known as "Mai Kritsana" (ไม้กฤษณา).
  
  
• In Tamil it is called "akil" (அகில்) though what was referred in ancient Tamil literature could well beExcoecaria agallocha.
  
  
• In Laos it is known as "Mai Ketsana".
  
  

Formation

There are fifteen species in the genus Aquilaria and eight are known to produce agarwood.In theory agarwood can be produced from all members; however, until recently it was primarily produced from A. malaccensis. A. agallocha and A. secundaria are synonyms for A. malaccensis. A. crassna and A. sinensis are the other two members of the genus that are usually harvested.

Formation of agarwood occurs in the trunk and roots of trees that have been infected by a parasitc ascomycetous mould, Phaeoacremonium parasitica, a dematiaceous (dark-walled) fungus. As a response, the tree produces a resin high in volatile organic compounds that aids in suppressing or retarding the fungal growth, a process called tylosis. While the unaffected wood of the tree is relatively light in colour, the resin dramatically increases the mass and density of the affected wood, changing its colour from a pale beige to dark brown or black. In natural forest only about 7% of the trees are infected by the fungus. A common method in artificial forestry is to inoculate all the trees with the fungus.

Hydro-Distillation process used to extract agarwood essential oils.

Aquilaria species that produce agarwood

The following species of Aquilaria produce agarwood:

Aquilaria khasiana,  Aquilaria apiculina Aquilaria acuminata Aquilaria baillonil Aquilaria baneonsis Aquilaria beccariana Aquilaria brachyantha Aquilaria crassna  Aquilaria cumingiana

Aquilaria filaria Aquilaria grandiflora Aquilaria hirta Aquilaria malaccensis Aquilaria microcapa Aquilaria rostrata Aquilaria sinensis Aquilaria subintegra

Conservation of agarwood-producing species

Overharvesting and habitat loss threatens some populations of agarwood-producing species. Concern over the impact of the global demand for agarwood has thus led to the inclusion of the main taxa on CITES Appendix II, which requires that international trade in agarwood is subject to controls designed to ensure that harvest and exports are not to the detriment of the survival of the species in the wild.

In addition, agarwood plantations have been established in a number ofcountries. The success of these plantation depends on the stimulation of agarwood production in the trees. Numerous inoculation technique shave been developed, with varying degrees of success.

Currently the demand for Agarwood and its products including Oudh oil, far exceeds the available supply. Oudh oil is used in some of the most expensive perfumes in the world, Lacoste, Tom Ford, Versace and Yves St. Laurent. The wood itself also has many other uses such as medical, religious and is carved into many different items. Today Agarwood is recognised as the most precious wood in the world, an extremely high value with being sold for as much as $5,000 USD.1kg and the essential oil can be worth anything up to $80,000 per kilo depending on quality.

The Opportunity is a forward purchase contract where you purchase saplings at a set price, the more you purchase the cheaper the saplings are. You are then given a forward purchase price at which the product provider will buy the trees back from you at maturity in 6yrs time. This means the returns of 72%+ for the 6yr term are guaranteed, backed by a company with a great reputation of plantation management and of producing quality grade Oudh oil.

Underlying Asset is the Agarwood trees, they are held by the customer, the returns are guaranteed by the current sale of the Oudh oil at today's price.

Security

A Guaranteed Return

Ownership and harvesting rights

Replacement of dead or damaged trees

aqaurilia

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