Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The oil is extracted from the agarwood through distillation. This delicate process
determines both the amount and quality of oil produced. The wood is ground into very
small pieces and/or powder, which are immersed in water and left to soak. Then the
material is transferred to kettles and distilled. After heating, the condensed water and oil
are captured in a container where the oil is separated and floats on top of the water. The
water is removed and the oil is thus recovered. The price of high quality oil can be as
much as US$30,000-US$50,000 per litre. This process can be repeated once or twice
depending on the quality of the water and the costs of the distillation process. The powder
which remains after distillation can be used for low grade incense making. It is estimated
that for the production of one liter of oil up to 150 kg of agarwood is needed.
The most important use of agarwood is without doubt incense for religious pur-
poses. Incense is used in a wide variety of religions. In fact incense plays an impor-
tant role in almost all religions, because of its pleasant smell, its smoke rising to
heaven, its purifying nature because of its relation fire and various other reasons.
Some of the symbolic functions of incense that are mentioned in the literature about
its religious use are the following:
1. Homage to God, the Gods or the ancestors and other spirits
2. Zeal of faithful to be animated
3. To accompany the prayers rising to heaven
4. To accompany the sacrifices made to heaven
5. In relation to death rituals, the safe passage of a deceased person to the after life
6. Cleaning/preparation of religious icons, altars and the religious officials (Groom
1981; Hoskin 1994; Catholic Encyclopedia 1998; Sinha 2005)
In comparison with the attention paid to the use and importance of incense in reli-
gious symbolism, it is surprising to notice how little attention is actually paid to the
incense producing plants, including the
Aquilaria
trees. Other plants producing
incense ingredients are frankincense (
Boswellia Thurifera
), sandalwood (
Santalum
album
and
Santalum spicatum
), benzoin (
Styrax benzoin
), camphor (
Cinnamomum
camphora
), and patchouli (
Pogostemon heyanus
). Little if anything is written in
these publications on the production itself, the people involved in its harvesting or
the status of the trees. Incense materials are in most cases obtained through com-
plex trading networks involving collecting traders operating in the frontier of har-
vesting areas, wholesale dealers and distributors. Quality and price are the
dominating factors involved, but giving the nature of the product it is evident that
trust between sellers and buyers is of utmost importance. Only a small proportion
of the agarwood users do harvest or grow agarwood themselves. Some Buddhist
monasteries in Vietnam, Lao DPR and Thailand have agarwood trees planted in
their gardens to supply their limited needs. In other cases supply is obtained
through trade networks based on economic principles.
All actors involved in the agarwood business acknowledge that a large part of
the trade takes place illegally. The CITES requirements are often not fulfilled.
Sustainability of agarwood production does not seem to be a major concern for
most traders and end users. As yet there is no certification system for agarwood
comparable for instance with a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certificate for
sustainably produced timber.
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