Agarwood Production - A Multidisciplinary Field to be Explored in Bangladesh

Abstract

Abstract'Agarwood' or 'eaglewood' ('Aguru' in Bengali) is the most expensive wood in the world, which is an occasional product of a few genera of Aquilaria and Gyrinops in the plant family Thymelaeaceae. Agar is a scented product, oleoresin, obtained from pathological conditions of the wood of live trees containing many aromatic substances. Various bacteria and fungi have been found to be associated with Agarwood formation, although it is still not absolutely clear which are important or even necessary. The quality of agar mostly depends on the plant species and the fungal species involved, as well as, certain other unknown factors. The issues are now to explore the new sources of agarwood to protect the endangered plant species, to ensure agar formation in 100% of the planted trees, upgrade in quality and most possibly quantity of agar yield per tree simultaneously minimizing the maturation time. Both physical and chemical stresses like mechanical wound and induction have long been practiced to enhance agarwood yield as well as fungal inoculation. Specificity of fungal infection is a minor criterion of agarwood formation rather than the plant's physiological state, immune responses and presence of inducer. The agarwood production could be a multifaceted field of prospects in Bangladesh. The cultivation of new Aquilaria and Gyrinops plants and selection of appropriate inocula and inducers should be the priority objective. A multidisciplinary approach could be initiated with the experts of forestry, mycology, biochemistry and microbiology to achieve the goal.

Management and Economic Aspects of Growing Aquilaria agallocha Roxb. in Bangladesh

“…The Forest Department of Bangladesh established several hectarea of agar plantations sporadically in the degraded forest lands throughout the country including 785 ha in Sylhet forest division. Small-scale and personal agarwood plantations are also reported from Sylhet, Habiganj and Chittagong Hill Tracks of Bangladesh (Akter et al 2013). However, such initiatives are not adequate to achieve the full environmental and conservation potential from agar trees.…”

Cross-border itinerant poaching of agarwood in Hong Kong's peri-urban forests

“…Two principal consumer clusters have emerged, namely East Asia (Mainland China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong), and West Asia (Middle East at and around the Arabian Peninsula). International trade in agarwood is valued at billions of US dollars per annum (Hansen, 2000;Broad et al, 2003), making it one of the most expensive non-timber products of the world by the unitweight yardstick (Jensen, 2009;Akter et al, 2013). The highest grade wood products, labelled "black gold" in China, could be valued up to US$10,000/kg, whereas the distilled Agar-oil could fetch up to US$30,000/kg (TRAFFIC, 2012;Abdin, 2014).…”

Development of low cost agarwood essential oil extraction system for agar tree growers in Bangladesh

“…Oldfield et al (1998) stated that resin production is in response to fungal infection. There are few small scale and personal agarwood plantations in Sylhet, Habiganj and Chittagong Hill Tracks in Bangladesh (Akter et al, 2013). Agarwood oil extraction is done at some industries in Bangladesh, but the extraction processes are very complex, comprising of expensive mechanical, solvent extraction and cold processing system.…”