Processing Oud Plant-Water Distillation Method

The odor of oud is sweet and woody, elegant scent, of variant character. Its fragrance depends on various factors, such as the level of oleoresin, the cause of oleoresin production within the wood, and its color. The quality of oud can be determined by its taste – the more quality oud, the taste is bitterer. The quality oud has no difference in color. There are five qualities, tastes, of oud which helps its classification:
Sweet – resembles the scent of honey, or concentrated sugar
Sour – reminds of sourness of plums
Salty – like the lingering smell of seaweeds smoked above the fire
Bitter – smells like bitter herbal tonic
Hot – with smell like red hot chilies burnt on fire

Aquillaria is often used in medical purposes in a way that an extract produced by boiling the wood in water is used as antipyretic, against stomach problems, diuretic, laxative, carminative and tonic. This extract is efficient in treatment of skin diseases, bronchitis, asthma and rheumatism. It is also included in some of the Tibetan formulas and recipes for production of medical incense sticks. In aromatherapy its essential oil is used to treat depression, and for meditation and relaxation. It is also considered to be the most powerful aphrodisiac among the essential oils.
Due to its rarity, high demand, but also the risks that the workers in search for oud in the deep forests are exposed to, oud and its extracts are very costly. Its value is estimated as 1,5 times of the value of gold, and therefore it is also called 'liquid gold'. It can be said that oud oil is the most expensive essential oil in the world.

Product : Agar Wood Oil, Aquilaria Agallocha Oil, Aloe Wood Oil
Description : This oil is produced by water distillation from fungus infected wood
of the tree Aquilaria agallocha.

Technical Data :

1. Appearance : Pale, greenish yellow to brownish yellow or dark amber
viscous liquid and sweet woody balsam sandalwood.
2. Specific Gravity (20°C) : 0.960 – 0.980
3. Refractive Index (20°C) : 1.507 - 1.515
4. Optical Rotation (a)D : (+10°) - (+25°)
5. Acid Number : Max. 9.0
6. Ester Number : 3.0 – 9.0

Storage Condition : Store in full, tight containers in a cool place, protected from light.
Shelf life : 2 (two) years.
Status : Does not contain any foreign matters.
Use : Perfumery.

Traditional and modern processing technologies are applied depending on crops and quality requirements of the market.For distilling essential oil we are using high quality copper for a traditionally designed distilling apparatus.

Aquilaria wood goes through various processing phases including grinding, purification, and extractionPics show a section of one of the biggest distillers in Malaysia. The raw wild agarwood chips mound are to be grind, ferment & distill using hydro steam distillers. This licenced & reputable distiller only extract the oleoraisin from wild agarwood. Production is about min. 4 liters per month of pure good quality greenish & yellowish natural pigment oleoraisin & pure distilled agarwood hydrosol, colloid suspension in water, that contain water soluble agarwood active compounds.

(Herbal distillates are aqueous solutions or colloidal suspensions (hydrosol) of essential oils usually obtained by steam distillation from aromatic plants. These herbal distillates have uses as flavorings, medicine and in skin care. Herbal distillates go by many other names including floral water, hydrosol, hydrolate, herbal water and essential water, Wikipaedia).

Hydro-steam distillation is one several conventional extraction methods. New agarwood extraction technology is supercritical CO2 extraction method which do almost 100% oleoraisin extraction & less than 1% of oleoraisin wastage. The efficiency of extraction duration per batch is about 5 minutes. The active compounds that dilluted & dissolved in hydrosol from the hydro-steam distillation process is still intact in supercritical CO2 extraction process of oleoraisin. Several test done on supercritical CO2 extraction of agarwood oleoraisin shows that this extraction process produce superior quality agarwood oleoraisin, as all the oleoraisin compounds totally extracted. This technology is avialable & developed locally at Kajang Technology Park,Malaysia.

Aquilaria: Chemists move toward production of valuable essential oil

Source: Thanh Nien Daily, Vietnam, 19 November 2007

“The global demand for Aquilaria oil is tremendous with supply at only 40 percent of demand. And every liter of this oil is sold for US$10,000 to $14,000 on the market,” said Ho Ngoc Vinh, director of HCMC-based essential oil provider Tinh Dat Viet.

Tinh Dat Viet is responsible for growing Aquilaria trees artificially. Vinh said the market for essential oil from Aquilaria, a genus of large evergreens native to Southeast Asia, is expanding.

In places like France, Germany, the US and the Middle East, Aquilaria oil, treasured for it fragrance, is used to produce incense and perfumes. The trees, Vinh said, are precious because they can produce an aromatic resin within the heartwood through a parasite infection process. “The amount of resin produced determines the value of an Aquilaria tree.”

Of different types of Aquilaria, Aquilaria crassna can produce the most and best resin. “A major concern, though, is that the naturally-grown Aquilaria resources are shrinking,” said Vinh. “So we have been growing the trees artificially across the country.” Under the project, 950 Aquilaria trees have been planted in the central province of Quang Nam and 4,000 and 2,500 in the Mekong Delta provinces of An Giang and Kien Giang respectively. “We have also been growing the trees on different scales in other places including Binh Dinh, Ha Tinh and the central highlands,” said Vinh.

The project's ultimate purpose is to produce Aquilaria oil using supercritical fluid carbon dioxide oil extraction techniques for domestic consumption as well as export. Aquilaria oil production in Vietnam is still mostly done by hand and scattered across the country, Vinh said, though the country has garnered US$10 million to $15 million in Aquilaria annual exports.

The Vietnam Chemical Technology Institute and the HCMC Department of Science and Technology are now working on equipment to ensure large-scale and efficient production of the oil. “To put it simply, under this technology, Aquilaria wood goes through various processing phases including grinding, purification, and extraction,” said Vinh.

Once in place, the equipment and technology will be available to any business interested in Aquilaria oil production.

The project promises great returns, Vinh added. “Eleven years of growing 1,000 Aquilaria trees on a hectare of land would cost a total amount of VND151 million. The market price of an 11-year-old Aquilaria tree is now VND4 million, which means VND4 billion in revenues from sales. No need to worry about demand either since it will only be rising.