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 Agarwood 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.

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 time  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,steel 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.

Ok,what is Artisanal distillation?

its price is different than regular oils,is it “expensive”?

Lets talk about distilaltion amd materials used in distillation.

woods grades used for oud distillation

1)Incense grade:As you know word “incense” is used for someting that we burn for its odor,Agarwood’s resinated parts 

The fully resinous parts of the agarwood are separated from the white wood to be used as incense (images available in the Incense category) This part is what is really meant when we say Agarwood and you have to be a little crazy to distill this part. And mesOUD uses only real "incense grade" wood in his distillations.

we only distill Real Oud

2)Shavings:This is the leftover of incense grade woods when seperating white woods from real incense grade woods,and this is the grade which people call”İncense grade”

price difference between shavings and incense grade wood is about 50X

but dlfference between yield is about 2x or max 3x

ok,then am i crazy to distill real incense,instead of shavings? Or is there any difference ?

yes i am crazy,but not idiot,yes i am crazy,because dedicated to distill best ever ouds,i am not idiot because here point is not yield or oil

complexity,a scent touching to your soul,a scent telling you that it comes from another realm,a scent can make you feel like high at first sniff,a scent that gives you a mind buzz 

yes this is what real oud is.

And only oils distilled from real incense grade 

woods have these.

3)Regular wood,think a tree removed incense grade parts and  shavings ????

After materials lets talk some about distillation techniques and skills,because just material quality is about half of artisanal oud,rest is about skills.

what is artisanal distillation?

There are many Agarwood spices,they have many common compounds also different compounds,so understanding what are differences between spices,what make one different than other is just starting,after you well understand it,then chemistry starts,if they are different,so have to act different.

predistillation process and process during distillation is like treasure mining,a standart distillation(yield focused) is about 4-5 days,but our artisanal distillations are between 30-45 days.What we are doing in these 45 days? 

As told,we well understand what we are looking for,Each compound requires different treatment,different temperature settings,sometimes we start with steam distillation and continue with hydro distillation etc etc

Ok then worth that effort and cost?

if you want to produce something out of this world and proud of it ABSOLUTELY worth it

and thank you till reading here,this is who we are and what we are doing.

And sorry we couldn’t tell you some stories ????,because we have real things to tell,dont need stories 

• 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]
• • Artisanal Oud