Agarwood is a fragrant wood used in incense, perfume, and herbal medicine. It is produced by Aquilaria trees when they are infected with a type of mould. The tree produces a dark resin in response to the infection, which saturates the wood and gives it a distinctive, unique scent.
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Many Aquilaria tree species provide agarwood, but some are more commonly used than others. The most popular species for agarwood production include Aquilaria malaccensis (Malaysia) , Aquilaria crassna (Thailand and Vietnam), and Aquilaria agallocha (India). Malaysia Aquilaria filaria is a popular one found in Maysia and New Guinea, Aquiliaria sinesis (China).
In nature, Agar wood or Oud is rare, found in the resinous heartwood of the Aquilaria or Gyrinops tree (closely related to Aquilaria species) from Southeast Asia. Currently, many Aquilaria species are critically endangered in the wild.
To save these species from overharvesting, agar wood plantations have been planted for decades.
We have a decent agarwood plantation site (circa 400 hectares in Vietnam of our own and 600 hectares in Thailand and Laos of our partners). Besides, for every tree harvested, we will plant two replacement trees for future sustainable consumption. Also, we also have a decent amount of wild Aquilaria trees within our land.
Aquilaria trees are the trees that produce Agarwood.
Please watch this 50 seconds video.
The below resinous Agarwood was from infected heartwood and branches from the infected tree known as Aquilaria.
The texture is dark brown. People believe the darker Agarwood, the better it is.
Please note: DO NOT expect A STRONG FRAGRANCE FROM THE BEADS ALL THE TIME as agarwood only emits a strong scent when being heated but NOT at room temperature. If you want the holy fragrance presented at all times, either purchase oud oil or woodchip
The smell of agarwood oil (oud oil) is easily noticeable as it takes around 1 ton of agarwood to produce 1 litre (this number varies from distillers, some more or less). Hence, it is a very concentrated form. You would never miss that.
1 x Agarwood bracelet is around 20g; the resin amount is unknown but relatively small. This item is more about spiritual practice and fashion. The fragrance is there but weak unless kept in a glass container or zip bag for some time. A genuine one will only have a subtle sweet woodsy scent, while an oil-submerged one will emit a stronger, more intensive fragrance.
1 x piece of Agarwood chip is around 1g, but the resin content is more than 60%. All the white wood (scentless components) was scrapped. When you heat this wood chip with an electric incense burner or place it on top of the charcoal, the high temperature will release the resin from the wood, creating a sensational fragrance.
1 x bottle of Agarwood oil (1.5 ml), 100% pure oil, apply one drop to be noticeable.
To illustrate, please see below.
The above container is 200 ml of pure agarwood oil. It takes hundreds of kilos of infected wood to distil. The scent is pleasant and enjoyable once the cap opens. You could smell it literally from metres away
This image above is a 1 kg bag of wood chips. To smell it, you must stay close (a few centimetres between the bag and your nose). The fragrance is present but not as strong as the oil. However, if one piece of wood chip is heated (1g is enough), the whole room would be filled with agarwood fragrance.
Now, consider beads or a bracelet or a necklace:
It is only 15g of wood containing some infected part only, could be seen in its pattern. To detect its smell in room temperature without heating or stored in a closed container, it is a challenging task. So, the next time you buy a genuine agarwood bracelet, choose your trust supplier as agarwood beads are one of the most challenging tasks to verify. Oil-submerged beads are easily detectable, often seen as their solid black or brown colour without and stripes (oil veins). These beads are dyed and injected with agarwood oil or other essential oil to create the scent.
Please click here for instruction on how to revive the scent
First of all, all our beads are made from genuine agarwood either cultivated or natural (would be stated in the product info), please be confident about that.
It is a default, just like a diamond; when people hear the name, they know it is expensive. Wild agarwood is almost extinct in nature and extremely rare to find; hunters risk their lives to get it in the forest. Therefore, for sustainable future exploitation, cultivated agarwood is introduced, but please consider:
In short, the high cost of Agarwood production makes it one of the most expensive wood in the world.
If you are buying agarwood incense in a shop in a sealed package, it is hard to detect any scent from it. If you do, and the scent is sharp, soap or chemical like the weight is more than 100g with a price less than $100, it is very likely the product is counterfeit.
Just like all the necessity which has high volume in stock turn: woodchips and oud oil (agarwood oil), the price of these items are often negotiable as they are consumed in an almost daily basis. With agarwood oil, Islam prays with it, Japanese, Chinese use it for medicinal purposes (for example to treat abdominal pain), Arabian uses it for manufacturing perfume. In contrast, agarwood beads are more in keep-sake, lucky charm or spiritual practice which last really long. Stock turning is slower and hence, high overhead cost occurs. In addition, each bead is made individually with care, high labour cost.
Simple, we manufacture it, and our popular cultivated Evergreen Superior oil has been tested in 2 separate labs (one in Vietnam and in Australia). Consumers are welcome to test in the lab again to see if there is anything else. An experienced user, he/she could detect if the oud oil was adulterated with others. If you want to know more, please email us at info@grandawood.com.au for a full 20-page report.
Yes, when we mentioned agarwood beads, they are genuine without adding colour or scent. Please see the pictures below
The red circle explained the bipolar pattern of the beads. When you see these bracelets, 100% it is made from cultivated agarwood. Wild one does not have this consistent pattern. This is very normal and is NOT dyed with colour. The price of these beads is usually less than $100. Again, the scent will only accumulate when stored in a closed container or zip bag as once you wear it, the scent molecules escape in the air, offering a very light fragrance; this explains why people could not smell anything after wearing the bracelet. The scent is there, you could revive it by containing your bracelet in a closed glass container or simply a zip bag.
Yes, given the right paperwork, there is no issue. For more info, please visit
https://www.environment.gov.au
In general, yes, unlike other essential oils requiring carrier oil to prevent burnt or skin irritation, agarwood (oud) oil could be applied to the human skin directly (neat application). However, YOU SHOULD ALWAYS TRY A SMALL DAB (a patch test) TO ENSURE YOUR SKIN HAS NO ADVERSE REACTION. Below are the sumary from page 190 of the Essential Oil Safty -Robert Tisserand, Rodney Young.
Agarwood, also known as agar, aloes wood, eaglewood, lignum aloe, or ood, is a type of wood from the Aquilaria malaccensis Lamk tree. This tree is also referred to by other names such as Aquilaria agallocha Roxb., Agallochum malaccense (Lamk) Kuntze, and Aquilariella malaccensis (Lamk) v. Tieghem. It belongs to the Thymelaeaceae family.
The essential oil derived from this wood is one of the most costly aromatic substances, priced 10-15 times higher than jasmine absolute. This oil is only extracted from wood that has been infected by fungus. Key components of the oil from Vietnamese agarwood include:
- 2-(2-(4-Methoxyphenyl)ethyl) chromone (21.2–33.0%)
- 2-(2-Phenylethyl) chromone (16.1–23.6%)
- Oxo-agarospirol (1.4–5.3%)
- Guaia-1(10),11-dien-15-oic acid (less than 4.7%)
- 6-Methoxy-2-(2-(4-methoxyphenyl)ethyl) chromone (2.0–3.7%)
The oil is considered safe as there are no known hazards or contraindications. Studies have shown that inhaling the vapours of agarwood oil can have a sedative effect on mice.
Although no specific data on toxicity and cancer potential is available, agarwood oil does not contain any known carcinogens. Additionally, CO2 extracts of the oil are also available.
Agarwood is listed under Appendix II of CITES, indicating it is not currently threatened with extinction but could become so if trade is not properly managed. Other analyses have shown different chemical components in agarwood oil from other regions like India and Bangladesh.
You should not drink Agarwood oil. Generally, we do not recommend the internal use of Agarwood oil in aromatherapy.
You can add a few drops of Agarwood oil to your diffuser and enjoy the benefit of aromatherapy. The oil will relax and boost your mood. Do not ingest the oil.
Cultivated beads mean agarwood beads made from farmed agarwood from our plantation, not from the wild. All beads are made by our craft man from genuine agarwood, either wild or farm grown(cultivated)
Beads-making material are selected from agarwood log (infected Aquilaria tree) and spun individually.
It takes 8 years to grow the Aquilaria trees, and two years of wounding to create agarwood inside them.
Yes, we do supply samples.
No, we do NOT do it for FREE
Why not?
If you are in Australia, you can drive to McDonald's and ask if you could get free ketchup.
Or ask for a FREE plastic bag in Coles and Woolies?
You might be right. Some oud is $20 for 3ml, but is it oud oil or oud perfume or something else? By the way, you are welcome to purchase from the other sellers.
If the oil contains 1% or less of genuine oud oil, and for marketing purposes, it can be called oud perfume or even oud oil. Here is an analogy, if you went to a supermarket and picked up an almond milk bottle, would you please check the percentage of the actual almond in the "milk"(around 1% to 5% only). The same principle is applied here.
You need to compare an apple to an apple. In other words, you need to compare two oud oils, NOT pure essential oil AND blended perfume oil.
There are several ways. to produce Agarwood oil.
We usually distil our oil (also known as oudh oil) by hydro (water) or steam distillation because these methods allow chemical bonds to be broken and reformed. This process makes our oil smell special.
The Term ‘essential oil’ is strictly limited to steam distillates or hydro-distillates (Water distillation). Oudh Oils obtained from the Super Fluid Extract or Solvent Extract method are not called essential oil.
Oud oil (Oudh Oil) distilled from Water and Steam Distillation is called Agarwood essential oil.
Oud Oil extracted from supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) is not called essential oil. This SFE is also pure Oud oil, just another way to produce pure oud oil.
It depends
If you want an oudy woody smell, the Co2 extraction would be better because the amount of oleoresins in the oud oil is higher than the hydro distillation method.
However, the aroma is not as complex as an essential oil.
Co2 oud oils smell woodier but are less complex than Agarwood essential oil.
On the other hand, Agarwood essential oil has more volatile organic compounds, so you will feel different layers of smell.
Please click here
Cultivated beads mean agarwood beads made from farmed agarwood from our plantation, not from the wild. All beads are made by our craft man from genuine agarwood either wild or farm grown(cultivated)
Beads making material are selected from agarwood log (infected Aquilaria tree) and spun individually
It takes 8 years to grow the Aquilaria trees, and two years of wounding to create agarwood inside them.
The base is different. One uses alcohol. You get the "hit" in the first spray. Alcohol-free is oil-based. It is less "booming" but it lasts longer. Oil does not vaporise as much as alcohol
Alcohol-free or oil base will be used for International Order.
To ship alcohol-based perfume, we need to use a Courier which can carry Dangerous Good. The cost for this option is very high. Currently, we do not offer this option to any order outside of Australia.
Reason: Alcohol is classified as a "Dangerous Good: Flammable Liquid."
15%-20%.
Wild Oud is a perfume itself. Generally speaking, people who buy wild oud will only want pure wild oud. They do not want anything else in it. Besides, wild oud is not sustainable. It is a one-off batch.
If you make perfume with it, you can only do it once or twice.
Try one and you will know what I mean.
What is your recommendation for a really sweet, clean and fruity oud?
=> If you like to enjoy "clean" scent, it would be the "heaven smoke" (super clean, zero decomposed notes), and the "Misty Forest". For wild oud, try the Scasa Saat Cambodian Oud
You can see the feedback under each product.
Unfortunately no. Having this option means we have to increase our price.
Lay-by means paying in instalments.
On average, "Lay-by service providers" charge 30 cents + 6% commission on the merchant. In addition, there would be another charge of 2% + 30 cents by the e-commerce platform.
Some of our products are over $1000, so it is not feasible to do so.
A 1.5ml bottle of Oud could last months and months; for cultivated Oud, on average, it is around $70. Let's say you use a small wooden stick (toothpick, for example. You dab in it the vial and dab in your hand. And you do it daily. It will take around 4 months to finish it.
But let's say you get bored and leave it aside. Normal perfume would go off because it passed the expiry date. Wood essential oil does not. It is getting better if you leave it aged. So, a question for you.
"For a 1.5ml bottle that literally has no expiration. Better yet, its aroma improves with age. And you could use it for months. Is that worth $70 AUD to you?"
Agarwood is used in many different ways, but the most common use is in incense and perfume. It has a very strong, distinctive smell that is said to be both sweet and woody. Agarwood is also used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat various diseases. I have written a detailed use of Agarwood here.
It depends.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora - CITES's purpose is to manage international trade in wild animals and plants specimens. The goal is to ensure the trade does not jeopardize the species' survival.
If you have an import permit and export permit issued from CITES then it is legal.
ween agarwood oil and other essential oils?
Agarwood oil has a wide range of benefits, some of which include:
-It can help to improve your mood
-It is believed to be helpful in the treatment of anxiety and depression
-It makes you smell good
-It can be used as an insect repellent
-It can make your perfume last longer
I have written Agarwood benefit here <- click the link to learn more
Oud and Agarwood mean the same thing: products from the resin of the Aquilaria tree.
More Agarwood (Oud or Ouhd) questions and answers here