Agarwood Indonesia

I heard and read a claim about oud can be vary in color.  This person claimed that Oud oil can be greenish or purple because of distilation process.

If you ask me  can oud oil  be varied in color?

The answer is yes. But green or purple is not it’s natural color. Since the color of oil depend on composition of chemical compound inside the oil Since oil is liquid state of oud resin. So it’s impossible that the oil will have different color with the resin when you distill them. It can be greenish or reddish but not dominant color. Pitch black is the natural color of oud oil or golden or brownish not purple or green (please read about this in agarwood grading article). Since this coloring process is also depend on micro climate inside the wood when infection taken part also what fungi and bacteria that taken part of this infection.

But making your Oud green isn’t as hard as you may think.

You just need a copper brass canister and oud oil.

Very simple and easy task, put the oil inside the copper brass, let it contact with the air for few months or even years (you may close it with a shred of fabric). And the reaction between the oil and the copper brass canister give you green oud oil. As simple as that.

But purple?

I’ve asked a professor that researching agarwood or oud since 1989. And when I asked him about this matter.  He said it’s not possible that oud oil can be purple. Too bad he doesn’t want to be known by public. Only to specific persons that had serious interest in agarwood.  I must seek his permission first if I want to publish his name on the web.  Since I don’t have it now maybe I will share his name and contact with you dear readers in the future.

There are many myth regarding oud including this one.

The simplest way to make oud colored is put some coloring agent in it.

The easiest way to detect this to give it a test lab using GC-MS test. With counter test between you and the trader. That’s all I can say.

If  any of you beloved readers had any objection in this article I would be glad to take any critics.

Thank you for reading.

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People are misleaded by the word “wood” in agarwood. And thinking that all  agarwood
must be wood chip. This is not 100% correct and not
100% wrong. Agarwood is an effect on fungal infection, the agarwood
tree produce resin to repel the boarders. The severe the infection the
more resin produced.

In Indonesia the end product of agarwood were classified into 3 major
class:

1. Gubal

What is gubal?
Gubal is the full resin of agarwood wich contain the whole resin with
few or 0 wood fiber. This is very high in price, a professor that is my
friend told me that his colleague sold it for 150 Million rupiah a
Kilo equal to US$14K++ to a Kuwaiti guy. So if somebody try to
blackmail you with selling wood chips with very few resin( You can see
it people!) and charge you US$3K/kilo just say to him/her: “Forget
it!” or
advertising they made oil out of US$3K wood chip, just leave him/ her.

Gubal shaped in several kinds:

-Stick (this is not real stick people, it’s just long shaped resemble
to stick )
-Fin
-Ball

The oudor is super strong even you imprison this baby in a sealed
carton box with strapped duct tape you can still smell it.

Another thing people this gubal if it’s AAA class if you put it inside a jar that contains water, it will surely sink.

Further more this Gubal will be brown , dark brown or pitch black. It will be in form of crystalized form of resin if it was AAA resin.

Gonystylus Bancanus Gubal

2.Kemedangan

Known to be incese grade agarwood, it’s in form of both wood and resin.
Huh? Wood and resin? How I ever differ the Kemedangan resin and Gubal
resin?

Hold your horses here.

Let’s talk about the wood 1st.
Agarwood wood chip will had brownish or black color from infections
(sometimes white but this is a very rare one)wich indicates it had
resin in it. This ranged from several US$ to several hundred US$/Kilo.

Medang Class Wood Chip

Now gidde up!!

Let’s talk about the medang resin, only to trained eye and nose can
differ gubal and medang. What? that hard?
No not that hard actually , kemedangan especially the AB class is a
little lighter in color and lesser oudor and another sign that a resin
is from kemedangan class that it breaks. Unlike the gubal that is
united into a one clump. Kemedangan tends to break and fragile. This
can be arround several hundred US$-several thousand.

Medang Class Resin AB Quality

3. Abu Gaharu (Agarwood Dust)

When you process the wood by splitting the infected wood and non infected wood you got the agarwood ash or the agarwood dust.These dust usually use as incese people! that sold in Ebay or many other sites. This is the lowest grade. Since this is by product. But don’t get mistaken if the seller process wood

with gubal class in it, you get gubal class dust and when they process medang class from the wood you get medang ash. So the price may vary.

Ok People thanks for your attention.

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According to botanical point of view, oudh trees can be divided into several familia and genus. From it’s familia the agarwood or oudh trees were divided into 3 kinds of familia the first is the Thymeleaceae. This familia had several genus the first is Aetoxylon, the second is Aquillaria, the third is Enklenia, the fourth is Gonystylus, the fifth is Wikstroemia (use to be found in Java, now extinct because excessive hunting during the Dutch colonial era.)
the sixth is Grynops.

The second familia is Leguminosae it only had one genus Dalbergia, The last familia is Euphorbiacae it also had only one genus that is Excoecaria.

Now we shall discuss about species, Aetoxylon only had one species that able to produce agarwood resin that is Aetoxylon Sympetalum also known as kayu bidurob, laka, garu buaya and pelabayan. A.Sympetalum has average high of 15 M or 49.212 ft with 25-27 cm in diamater. It has egg shapped leaf, it grows in sandy low land forest with average rain rate per year is about 1400 mm/year.

As for Aquilaria genus it has the riches and the best species that can produce agarwood resin. It has several species the first is Aquilaria Beccariana, secondly Aquilaria Microcarpa this tree is able to grow 35 M or 114.82 ft in high and 70 cm in it’s diameter, The third is the queen of Indonesian oudh Aquillaria Malacenensis LAMK this tree can grow about 40 M or 131.23 ft in high (as tall as cellphone tower!) with it’s diameter 80 cm. This tree is the best producer of agarwood resin and oil in Indonesia.The fourth is Aquilaria Fillaria it  is only grow to the average high of 15-18 M and the trunk diameter  is only 50 cm. this tree is natively to eastern part on Indonesia such Moluccas and  Papua. In Papua this tree call as Age and in Moluccas known as Las.  The fifth is Aquilaria Cumingiani.

The third genus is Gonystylus. It had 2 species G.bancanus and G.macrophyllus This plant is a huge one. It can reach 45 M in hight and it’s diameter ranged from 30-120 cm (almost as large as a dinning table.)  this tree live in the bogs or wetlands. It produce ball resin.   The ball resin formed because an infection hit the ex branches growing area. It grows in Sumatera and Kalimantan (borneo)

The fourth genus  is Enkleia. Enkleia is a  liana plant wich means it’s a climber plant (it climb up to another plant trunk’s or any other things to gain sunlight). This plant lenght can reach 30 M and the trunk diameter is only 10 cm. It has red colored trunk with branches and also a hook that use for climbing.

The fifth  genus is Wikstroemia
This plant is a bush plant. It can reach 7 M in high it’s branches diameter it’s only 7.5 cm. The  branches where red or brownnish colored. In Indonesia there are 3 species of Wikstoemia,  Wisktroemia androsalmofolia Decne found in Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara and Papua. The second  Wikstroemia polyantha Merr found all over Indonesia and the third is Wikstroemia Miq found in Sumatera and Kalimantan.

The sixth genus from Thylemeceae is Grynops it has 2 species Grynops verstegii found in Nusa Tenggara, Sulawesi , Moluccas and Papua the second species  Grynops cumingiani this plant found in Sumatra.

Now we shall discuss the second family the Legumiosae, this Family only had one genus and one species that can produce agarwood resin. Dalbergia parvifolia from the genus of Dalbergia found in Sumatera and Kalimantan. This plant is a liana plant.

The last Family is Euphorbiaceae. From this family we found one genus Excoeccaria, the only species that can produce agarwood resin is Excoeccaria Agalocha. This tree live in the mangrove area. It can reach 10-20 M and it’s trunk diameter can reach 40 cm.

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