Agarwood-type Resin from Gyrinops walla Gaertn: A New Discovery

Abstract

Agarwood is an expensive resinous product extracted from some members of Aquilaria and Gyrinops species of the family Thymalaeaceae. Agarwood essential oil is a highly valued perfumery product in modern cosmetics and traditional Attar. Agarwood extraction from the above species and product manufacturing are done in India and Southeast Asian countries. However, overharvesting, low natural regeneration, and legal restrictions at present, have limited the supply of this product.Gyrinops walla is recorded in the wet zone of Sri Lanka, and it had been very rarely recorded in extreme Southwest India. However, recent reports of the abundance of G. walla in India are hard to find. Studies were not conducted in the past for G. walla on its ability of agarwood resin production and the quality of that resin. This study is the first to identify the agarwood resin formation and the quality of G. walla which can be used as a substitute for that of Aquilaria and other species of Gyrinops.Resinous tissues were extracted from six G. walla trees for the present study from two different areas, i.e., Labugama and Yagirala of the wet zone of Sri Lanka. The resins were solvent extracted in the laboratory and the resin quality was tested using gas chromatography analysis. The results indicated an extreme similarity of the compounds of G. walla resin with that of commercially available agarwood resins. However, further studies should be conducted to identify G. walla distribution and formation of agarwood.

Characterisation of agarwood type resin of Gyrinops walla Gaertn growing in selected populations in Sri Lanka

“…The ability of G. walla in producing agarwood was explored for the first time http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2015.01.060 0926-6690/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. through our previous research (Subasinghe et al, 2012;Subasinghe and Hettiarachchi, 2013). These findings confirmed that G. walla is producing agarwood type resins which are chemically similar to that of Aquilaria species.…”

Challenges of Biopiracy: Implementing Community Based Ecotourism (CBET) in the Sri Lankan context

“…Even if this species has been recorded in some areas of South India, at present Gyrinops walla can only be seen in Sri Lanka (Subasinghe, Hettiarachchi & Rathnamalala, 2012). As there are many freely growing Gyrinops walla trees in the Kudawa-Sinharaja site, paid local people enter the site looking for these trees to extract its resin.…”

The Origin and Domestication of Aquilaria, an Important Agarwood-Producing Genus

“…To date, only three species are known agarwood producers: G. ledermannii , G. versteegii , and G. walla (Hou 1960 ;Ng et al 1997 ;Compton and Zich 2002 ;Subasinghe et al 2012 ). The genus Gyrinops was listed under Appendix II of CITES in 2005 together with the genus Aquilaria as a conservation effort; however, it was not included in the IUCN Red List perhaps because the exploitation of its natural population was not as alarming as Aquilaria .…”

“…Gyrinops plantations were initiated as early as 1998 without prior information on its taxonomy. A thorough taxonomy study was then carried out in 2001 where the plantation species was identifi ed as G. ledermannii (Subasinghe et al 2012 ).…”