What's Agarwood and its other names?
Souce: Wikipedia
Agarwood, aloeswood, eaglewood or gharuwood is a fragrant dark resinous wood used in incense, perfume, and small carvings. It is formed in the heartwood of aquilaria trees when they become infected with a type of mold (Phialophora parasitica). Prior to infection, the heartwood is odourless, relatively light and pale coloured; however, as the infection progresses, the tree produces a dark aromatic resin, called aloes (not to be confused with Aloe ferox, the succulent commonly known as the bitter aloe) or agar (not to be confused with the edible, algae-derived agar) as well as gaharu, jinko, oud, or oodh aguru (not to be confused with bukhoor), in response to the attack, which results in a very dense, dark, resin-embedded heartwood. The resin-embedded wood is valued in Indian-North Eastern culture for its distinctive fragrance, and thus is used for incense and perfumes. Its name is believed to have first and foremost Sanskrit origin, formed from ‘Aguru’. The aromatic qualities of agarwood are influenced by the species, geographic location, its branch, trunk and root origin, length of time since infection, and methods of harvesting and processing.
One of the main reasons for the relative rarity and high cost of agarwood is the depletion of the wild resource. Since 1995, Aquilaria malaccensis, the primary source, has been listed in potentially threatened species by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.In 2004, all Aquilaria species were listed; however, a number of countries have outstanding reservations regarding that listing. Nowadyas, lots on countries have human plantaion on most popular species.
First-grade agarwood is one of the most expensive natural raw materials in the world, with 2010 prices for superior pure material as high as US$100,000/kg, although in practice adulteration of the wood and oil is common, allowing for prices as low as US$100/kg. A whole range of qualities and products are on the market, varying in quality with geographical location, botanical species, the age of the specific tree, cultural deposition and the section of the tree where the piece of agarwood stems from. As of 2013, the current global market for agarwood is estimated to be in the range of US$6 – 8 billion and is growing rapidly.
Agarwood is known under many names in different cultures:
- Another name is Lignum aloes or Aloeswood, unrelated to the familiar genus, Aloe. Also from aghil, via Hebrew and Greek.
- In Assamese it is called as "xasi" (সাঁচি).
- In Bengali, agarwood is known as "agor gach/gas (আগর গাছ)" and the agarwood oil as "agor ator (আগর আতর)".
- In Odia, it is called as "agara" (ଅଗର).
- In Cambodia, it is called "chann crassna". The fragrance from this wood is called "khloem chann" (ខ្លឹមចាន់) or "khloem chann crassna". "khloem" is hard wood, "chann crassna" is the tree species Aquilaria crassna in the Khmer language.
- In Hindi, it is known as agar, which is derived originally from the Sanskrit aguru.
- In Sinhala Agarwood producing Gyrinops walla tree is known as "Walla Patta" (වල්ල පට්ට).
- In Tamil it is called "aghil" (அகில்) though what was referred in ancient Tamil literature could well be Excoecaria agallocha.
- In Telugu and Kannada, it is known by the same Sanskrit name as Aguru.
- It is known as Chénxiāng (沉香) in Chinese, Chimhyang (침향) in Korean and Jinkō (沈香) in Japanese; all meaning "deep scent" and alluding to its intense scent. In Japan, there are several grades of Jinkō, the highest of which is known as Kyara (伽羅).
- In Tibetan it is known as ཨ་ག་རུ་ (a-ga-ru). There are several varieties used in Tibetan Medicine: unique eaglewood: 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).
- Both agarwood and its resin distillate/extracts are known as oud (عود) in Arabic (literally "rod/stick") and used to describe agarwood in Arab countries. Western perfumers also often use agarwood essential oil under the name "oud" or "oudh".
- In Europe it was referred to as Lignum aquila (eagle-wood) or Agilawood, from similarity to Tamil-Malayalam aghil'
- In Indonesian and Malay, it is called "gaharu".
- In Papua New Guinea it is called "ghara" or eagle wood.[citation needed]
- In Thai it is known as mai kritsana (ไม้กฤษณา).
- In Laos it is known as mai ketsana (ໄມ້ເກດສະໜາ).
- In Myanmar (Burmese), it is known as Thit Mhwae (သစ်မွှေး).
- In Vietnamese, it is known as trầm hương. In Vietnam, ancient texts also refer to the use of agarwood in relation to travelling Buddhist monks.