Aquillaria is often used in medical purposes in a way that an extract produced by boiling the wood in water is used as antipyretic, against stomach problems, diuretic, laxative, carminative and tonic. This extract is efficient in treatment of skin diseases, bronchitis, asthma and rheumatism. It is also included in some of the Tibetan formulas and recipes for production of medical incense sticks. In aromatherapy its essential oil is used to treat depression, and for meditation and relaxation. It is also considered to be the most powerful aphrodisiac among the essential oils.
When Aquillaria Agallocha and Aquillari Malaccensis get infected with the mould Phialophora parasitica, its immune system reacts in a way that in the heartwood it produces a precious, dark and aromatic raisin, oleoresin, also known as aggor, agarwood, eagleswood, aloeswood, oud or oudh in Arabic, and gaharu in Malayan. It is possible to find the precious raisin even in the roots when the mould causes infection under ground. Because of its weight, this raisin is in Japan called Jinko, what means ‘the wood that sinks in water’. The finest quality raisin of Aquillaria is called Kanankoh or Kyara in Japanese. There are four types of Kyara – black, purple, green and iron.
Many cultures appreciated this wood and its raisin as the most precious substance in the world. According to the legend, agarwood was the only wood from the Garden of Eden that Adam and Eve were allowed to take cuttings from.
Chinese people were trading and importing agarwood at least a thousand years before the Europeans learned about it. They used it for incense, but for medical purposes as well. Ancient Egyptians used it for embalming the dead. Samurai warriors would scent their armors in oud smoke for good luck. It was known and appreciated in India, where women would scent their hairs above the burning oud incense. The King Louis XIV of France knew and appreciated oud as well and wanted his shirts to be scented with this fragrance.
In Arabic countries, especially in the Persian Gulf, oud is used as frankincense. As one of the oldest and most precious fragrant materials, oud, together with sandalwood, is used in Kōdō, the incense ceremony.
It is used in religious rituals of Buddhists, Hindu and Muslims. Sufis use agarwood oil in their esoteric ceremonies, and Japanese shamans to activate their psychic powers, as it is said to increase mental clarity, opens the third eye and all other upper chakras,, enables communication with the transcendental, refreshes the body and mind, purifies and impel negative energies and fears at the same time giving the sense of power and peace.
Chinese believe that the smoke of oud takes prayers directly to the Creator. In Wicca practicing, oud is one of the most powerful components of fragrant magic formulas, which irresistibly attracts the desired lover.
The odor of oud is sweet and woody, elegant scent, of variant character. Its fragrance depends on various factors, such as the level of oleoresin, the cause of oleoresin production within the wood, and its color. The quality of oud can be determined by its taste – the more quality oud, the taste is bitterer. The quality oud has no difference in color. There are five qualities, tastes, of oud which helps its classification:
- Sweet – resembles the scent of honey, or concentrated sugar
- Sour – reminds of sourness of plums
- Salty – like the lingering smell of seaweeds smoked above the fire
- Bitter – smells like bitter herbal tonic
- Hot – with smell like red hot chilies burnt on fire
Unlike other fragrant woods or materials, the oud chips produce fragrance only when burned. Only burned oud releases in the atmosphere a fresh and fascinating spiritual scent. In comparison with fragrance of other woods the fragrance of burnt oud is very long-lasting and a small quantity of burned oud may scent the air for the whole hour.
The fragrant component of oud comes in solid or liquid state of aggregation. Solid oud is solid only at a room temperature, while when slightly warmed, it becomes liquid. The oil is very tenacious, and the smallest drop is sufficient to fill in the atmosphere with irresistible, complex, deep aroma with whole palette of nuances. The fragrance takes 12 hours to develop and it remains on skin for over a day. When applied on a material,, its fragrance lasts for months.
Oud is unavoidable component in production of attar, Arabian perfume oils. In perfumes it is used in forms of oud oil (in Arabian ‘dehn al oud’) or raisin (oud mubakhar). The oil of oud, whether extracted by distillation from wood, or by melting the raisin, can be applied on skin directly and undiluted, as it does not irritate, or added in a perfume composition. Oud is not so widely spread and used in western perfume industry. However, some perfume houses such as Yves Saint Lauren and Amouage, Arabian perfume house in Oman which exports to Europe, North America and Australia, use oud in their perfumes for the base notes.
Due to its rarity, high demand, but also the risks that the workers in search for oud in the deep forests are exposed to, oud and its extracts are very costly. Its value is estimated as 1,5 times of the value of gold, and therefore it is also called ‘liquid gold’. It can be said that oud oil is the most expensive essential oil in the world.
Unlimited and unplanned cutting of this wood species, in hope that the raisin will be found, has resulted in depleted resources of this wood. But, thanks to several families in Indian district Assam which grow big plantations of this wood, the oud oils is coming back to use. In some south-east Asian countries, projects for creation of oud by infecting the cultivated Aquillaria trees with mould are being implemented, in order to maintain the production of oud. Oud production of cultivated woods contributes both to protection of the wild-grown trees, as swell as to decrease of the price and accessibility of this material, because the price of cultivated is half of the price for the wild tree oud.
