Environments and People - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 45

sandalwood has a recorded history of 4,000 years and
isone of the oldest known perfumery ingredients.
Sandalwood oil is commercially distilled from trees
at least 30 years old. Extracted from plant leaves,
patchouli oil was used to scent the carpets and rugs
of India. Now cultivated commercially , especially in
Malaysia, it is a key ingredient in French perfumes.
Resins , known as copals and dammars (the
Malay word for resin), are exudatesthey ooze out
of trees as a result of injury . These can be collected
in soft or hard form. Old, fossilized, hard lumps,
buried beneath the ground for ages, are highly
prized. Copals are used in paints and resins. Softer
than copal and soluble, dammars are used for such
things as varnishes and wallpaper finishes. Gum
resins and gum turpentine are drawn from pine
forests in the Himalayan foothills and elsewhere.
Forest products are primary sources of pharma-
ceuticals. Strychnine is but one example. Indige-
nous to the monsoon forests of western, coastal
India, it is still widely employed there and in South-
east Asia as a stimulant, tonic, or emetic. Strych-
nine is also used for spear and arrow hunting and
to poison vermin. Y ou have probably read about it
in mystery novels as a means of murder. Prepared
from the seed of the snakewood tree, large doses of
strychnine are definitely deadly .

Figure 2-14
I took this photo in a small village in northern Laos where I was
offered live bamboo worms to eat. Of course, to us they are quite
revolting, but this little girl was eating them like candy .
Photograph courtesy of B. A. Weightman.

MANGROVES
Mangroves are littoral (coastal) plant formations of tropi-
cal and subtropical regions where trees and shrubs have
adapted to inundated and saline conditions (Figure 2-15).
They grow in intertidal zones between land and sea. At
least 50 million years old, they originated in Malaysia and
diffused around the globe. A total of 69 mangrove species
have been documented worldwide, with the highest diver-
sity occurring in Southeast Asia. Mangroves are capable of
rapid growth. A yearly growth of 540 feet (164 m) has
been recorded in Java. Palembang, Sumatra, a coastal port
in the thirteenth century , is now 31 miles (50 km) inland.
The world' s largest remaining mangrove concen-
tration is the Sunderbans of Bangladesh in the Bay of
Bengal, and the Bengal tiger makes its home in this
forested area. Mangroves comprise habitats for hundreds
of living organisms from mammals, birds, crustaceans,
and fish, to algae, fungi, and bacteria. Four hundred
types of fish can be found in the Sunderbans alone. This
entire community is called mangal .

China changed its forest policy in the late 1990s
and this practice has become less common.
Proponents of the bamboo industry claim that
the plants capture CO 2 and require very little fertil-
izer or pesticides and virtually no irrigation water.
Further, heavy machinery is not needed to cut it,
and its root systems help to prevent soil erosion.
Consequently , it is marketed as a “green” product.
However, since most consumers live thousands of
miles away from the producers, transshipment of
bamboo and its products does leave a sizeable car-
bon footprint. Also, large quantities of water and
noxious chemicals are used in the processing of
bamboo into cloth and other materials.
T Tropical forests are also rich in essential oils.
Vietnam, for instance, produces around 400 of
these, including anise (black licorice or anisette).
In India, Sri Lanka, and Timor-Leste, aromatic