Fungi mediated agarwood (A. malaccensis) production and their pharmaceutical applications: A systematic review

Abstract

Aquilaria malaccensis is a tropical tree that produces expensive resinous heartwood agarwood through the natural process induced by natural or artificial injury or microbial infection. Fungi are commonly noticed as the main microbial component responsible for agarwood formation. The current review investigated the agarwood quality and fungi diversity in artificial and natural agarwood from A. malecensis trees from the rainforest for various pharmaceutical applications. Apart from being an aromatherapy material, in medicinal prospect, agarwood can be used as a carminative, stimulant for heart palpitation, tonic during pregnancy, remedy during the post-natal recovery period, and cure for the disease of the female genital part. The whitebark of agarwood is believed to heal jaundice and body pain. Moreover, agarwood helps to relieve body pain, warm the abdomen, relieve asthma, treat coughs, and acroparalysis acts as antihistamine, analgesic and anti-inflammatory. In Chinese traditional medicine, it is helpful as a sedative to relieve gastric problems, relieve rheumatism and high fever. Agarwood properties were able to fight cancer cells but very little is known about this process. The present review also illustrated the variety of kinds of pharmaceutical applications in the treatment of various diseases. Current review findings proved that artificial agarwood may produce quality equal to natural agarwood and may not be affected by fungi interacting with the tree, which can be used as a superior pharmaceutical application.