Abstract
Agarwood is the fragrant resin-infused wood derived from the wounded trees of Aquilaria species. It is a valuable non-timber forest product used in fragrances and as medicine. Reforestation for Aquilaria trees in combination with artificial agarwood-inducing methods serves as a way to supply agarwood and conserve of wild Aquilaria stock. However, the existing agarwood-inducing methods produce poor-quality agarwood at low yield. Our study evaluated a novel technique for producing agarwood in cultivated Aquilaria trees, called the whole-tree agarwood-inducing technique (Agar-Wit). Ten different agarwood inducers were used for comparison of Agar-Wit with three existing agarwood-inducing methods. For Aquilaria trees treated with these ten inducers, agarwood formed and spread throughout the entire tree from the transfusion point in the trunk to the roots and branches of the whole tree. Agarwood yield per tree reached 2,444.83 to 5,860.74 g, which is 4 to 28 times higher than that by the existing agarwood-inducing methods. Furthermore, this agarwood derived from Agar-Wit induction was found to have a higher quality compared with the existing methods, and similar to that of wild agarwood. This indicates Agar-Wit may have commercial potential. Induction of cultivated agarwood using this method could satisfy the significant demand for agarwood, while conserving and protecting the remaining wild Aquilaria trees.
Highlights
Agarwood is a highly prized non-timber forest product which can be used in fragrances, incense, medicines, aromatherapy and religious ceremonies [1,2,3]
The agarwood inducer was conveniently injected into the xylem of A. sinensis trees through a transfusion set
As shown in the figures, the pure water negative control and healthy wood blank control exhibited the same results. These results show that the quality of the agarwood induced by the Agar-Wit was similar to that of wild agarwood, and better than that of the agarwood produced by partly-trunk-prunning method (PTP), burning-chisel-drilling method (BCD) and fungi-inoculation method (FI)
Summary
Agarwood is a highly prized non-timber forest product which can be used in fragrances, incense, medicines, aromatherapy and religious ceremonies [1,2,3]. The precious, expensive, fragrant agarwood has been used for centuries as incense in Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic ceremonies. It plays an important role in Chinese Traditional Medicine for obvious medicinal effects as a sedative and carminative, and to relieve gastric problems, coughs, rheumatism and high fever. The value of agarwood shipped out of Singapore alone each year has been estimated to exceed $1.2 billion [4]. The most important source of agarwood is the Aquilaria spp
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