Ancient Medicine

In use for over 2000 years for medicinal, aromatic and religious purposes, Aquilaria malaccensis is the preferred source of agarwood for perfumery and religious traditions in the Middle East and in India.

In the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (a canonical collection of Hebrew scriptures, including the Torah, the Nevi’im, and the Ketuvim), “trees of lign aloes” are mentioned in The Book of Numbers 24:6 and a perfume compounded of aloeswood, myrrh, and cassia is described in Psalms 45.

Dioscorides in his book Materia Medica (65 CE) described several medical qualities of agarwood (Áγαλλοχου) and mentioned its use as an incense.

Even though Dioscorides describes agarwood as having an astringent and bitter taste, it was used to freshen the breath when chewed or as a decoction held in the mouth. He also writes that a root extract was used to treat stomach complaints and dysentery as well as pains of the lungs and liver.

Agarwood has been used in Malaysia for cosmetic purposes, particularly during sickness and after childbirth. The medicinal benefits of agarwood have also been documented in the Ayurvedic medicinal text, the Susruta Samhita.

Agarwood’s use as a medicinal product was also recorded in Islamic hadīth (collections of statements and actions of the Prophetﷺ) collection Sahih Muslim, which dates to around the eighth century.

In another authentic hadith canon, Imam Bukhari reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Treat with Indian incense (‘oud al-Hindi), for it has healing for seven diseases; it is to be sniffed by one having throat problems, and to be put into one side of the mouth by one suffering from pleurisy.”

This prescription was given more than fourteen hundred years ago before aromatherapy was even considered an area of alternative medicine.

The uses of oud form a central part of adornment and worship in Islam.

In the Far East, as early as the third century CE in ancient Viet Nam, the chronicle Nan zhou yi wu zhi (Strange things from the South) written by Wa Zhen of the Eastern Wu Dynasty mentioned agarwood produced in the Rinan commandery, now Central Vietnam, and documented its collection in the mountains.

Antique agarwood beads were inlaid with gold during the late Qing dynasty and form part of the China Adilnor Collection of ancient jewellery.

During the sixth century CE in Japan, in the recordings of the Nihon Shoki (The Chronicles of Japan) the second oldest book of classical Japanese history, mention is made of a large piece of fragrant wood identified as agarwood.

The source for this piece of wood is claimed to be from Pursat, Cambodia (based on the smell of the wood). The famous piece of wood remains in Japan today and is showcased less than 10 times per century at the Nara National Museum.

The use of agarwood bark as a writing material has also been documented extensively and agarwood is used for chronicles of important and sacred religious books.

Use as a substitute for paper is also known from the mountaineers of Annam (Vietnam) and from China (Chakrabarty et al., 1994). Twine is reported to be made from Aquilaria in Malacca (a province of Malaysia) (Chakrabarty et al., 1994).

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