Resinous included phloem as a key indicator of authentic or fake agarwood.

Abstract

Agarwood, the resinous wood of the genus Aquilaria Lam. and Gyrinops Gaertn. of the family Thymelaeaceae, is a very valuable traditional medicinal material and spice. Due to the high economic value of agarwood, unscrupulous merchants have led to the prevalence of fake agarwood in the trade market in pursuit of high profits. Therefore, it is crucial to explore the characteristics of agarwood and establish a simple and rapid method to identify authenticity. This study compared the authenticity of the microstructure of agarwood from different producing areas with that of artificially simulated fake agarwood. The included phloem of authentic agarwood contains brown to brownish resin. And these resins were naturally and stably distributed. The fake agarwood is divided into two categories: one itself is non-agarwood wood (without included phloem), and the other is artificially counterfeiting. However, the filling of resin in the included phloem of agarwood did not occur after artificially simulated counterfeiting treatments. Of the 18 commercially available samples, 10 had the same microstructure as agarwood, but six of them were not completely filled with resin in the included phloem. Therefore, the resinous included phloem is a key characteristic structure of agarwood. It can be used as a basis for authenticity identification of agarwood. This will provide a convenient and rapid method for promoting and popularizing agarwood authentication in trade, customs enforcement, CITES management, and other fields.