Agarwood, aloeswood, eaglewood, gharuwood or Tree of the Gods, most commonly called oud or oudh, is a fragrant dark resinous wood used in incense, perfumes and small carvings. It is formed when Aquilaria trees become infected with a type of mold (Phialophora parasitica) as a result of stress against external factors such as lightning strikes, ant infestations, etc. and secrete a resin to fight the mold. Before infection, the heartwood is odorless, relatively light and pale in color; but as the infection progresses, the tree produces a dark aromatic resin called gaharu, jinko, ud or oudh aguru in response to the attack, resulting in a very dense, resin-embedded heartwood. Resin-embedded wood is valued for its distinctive odor and is therefore used for incense and perfumes.
Although modern perfumery and the capitalist system have only recently discovered oud, the use of oud as incense and the distillation of its oil as a fragrance dates back thousands of years, and it has always been among the most precious scents.Today, the oud market has become a 20 billion dollar industry, and in the face of such intense demand, unfortunately, wild agarwood trees, that is, agarwood trees that grow in nature in their own state without human touch, are on the verge of extinction, and more than 95% of the existing agarwood trees are plantations, that is, they are planted by human hands and the infection process is manipulated in different ways, by the way, as classified in our product categories, we will try to divide today's ouds into 2-3 classes.
1)wild agarwood: The term "wild" is used to describe agarwood that grows in nature away from human intervention and the infection process takes place completely by natural factors, and this infection process takes more than 50 years to occur naturally. And when oud is called oud or when oud is beautified, it is always ouds belonging to this class that are actually meant because both the old age of the tree and the natural development of the infection process provide the complex structure of oud.
2) Cultivated (Plantation): In other words, it is the term used to characterize the type of oud that has been planted by human hands and where human hands are present in the infection process, we can roughly divide it into two classes
a) Cultivated/Organic:Manually cultivated agarwood is manipulated to be organically infected, usually by piercing the trunk of the tree with wooden nails called "nailing", simulating the destruction caused by a lightning strike or pest attack, stressing the tree and activating its defense mechanisms to stimulate resin production,this process is shorter than the natural infection process, in nature it is not possible to have lightning strikes or pests on the tree every moment of every day, but with the manipulation method, the tree is stimulated faster and is usually harvested between 10 and 20 years old
b) chemical inoculation: in this method, the manipulation process is done completely by chemical inoculation method, we do not approve of such products, we do not have them within the mesOUD, unfortunately, people who do not have the slightest knowledge about what is what, such as watermelon seller, melon seller, unknowingly buy such products and sell them to people as oud.
All the ouds in mesOUD are sourced from agarwood growers and hunters around the world and presented to you after many years of collecting and distilling experience of mesOUD.
Here are Aquilaria spices and locations they are available
- Aquilaria apiculata, found in Philippines
- Aquilaria baillonil, found in Cambodia and Thailand
- Aquilaria banaensae, found in Vietnam
- Aquilaria beccariana, found in Indonesia
- Aquilaria brachyantha, found in Malaysia
- Aquilaria crassna found in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam
- Aquilaria cumingiana, found in Indonesia and Malaysia
- Aquilaria filaria, found in New Guinea, the Moluccas, and Mindanao (Philippines)[38]
- Aquilaria grandiflora, found in China
- Aquilaria hirta, found in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia[39]
- Aquilaria khasiana, found in Bangladesh and India.
- Aquilaria malaccensis, found in Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos, Thailand, and India
- Aquilaria microcarpa, found in Indonesia and Malaysia
- Aquilaria rostrata, found in Malaysia
- Aquilaria sinensis, found in China and Laos
- Aquilaria subintegra, found in Cambodia,Thailand
* Sri Lankan agarwood is known as Walla Patta and is of the Gyrinops walla species.
Note: In our fragrance profile description, very subtle nuances have been mentioned for perfumers and oud experts, and we felt the need to make a note in order to avoid misunderstanding, while notes such as orange, fir, etc. are emphasized, these are not the basic notes of oud, as emphasized, they are donations that will serve as a clue to an expert, otherwise oud does not smell like oranges ????
In the descriptions of our ouds, in the fragrance profiles and characteristics section, information about the family, tree species, distillation year and the region of origin of the tree will be given, and there are no long stories and beautifications, our aim is not only to sell products, but to bring the right products together with people who really know what they want. I think you are not in the right place for fancy sentences and imaginary descriptions.