Oud Kinamic — Aquilaria sinensis — Malaysia

Aquilaria sinensis (Lour.) Spreng. is a tree of the Thymelaeaceae family, native to southern China, including Hainan island. It is the source of Chinese agarwood, chenxiang, and today it is grown in plantations in several Southeast Asian countries. This oil comes from trees cultivated in Malaysia.

The tree's healthy wood is pale and barely scented. When the tree is wounded and attacked by fungi, it defends itself by producing a dark, aromatic resin that impregnates the wood: that resinated wood is agarwood.

All Aquilaria species are listed in CITES Appendix II, which regulates their international trade.

Agarwood is one of the oldest and most valuable aromatic materials in the world. In China it has been used for centuries in medicine and as incense, and in Japan it is the heart of kōdō, the art of “listening” to incense.

In the Japanese classification, kyara holds the highest rank: a rare, soft, resinous wood with a sweet, refreshing scent. Its Vietnamese equivalent, kinam, gives us the term “kinamic”, used to describe oils that evoke that profile.

The oil is obtained by hydrodistillation of cultivated agarwood. Before distillation, the wood undergoes a very light fermentation: enough to give it some depth, but far from the heavily fermented profiles of other ouds, so it keeps the clean, fresh character of the resin.

Agarwood oils are complex mixtures of sesquiterpenes and 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromones, responsible for their woody, balsamic and sweet character.

Opening. Very refreshing, with the freshness typical of kinamic profiles and a feel somewhere between fresh cacao and a slightly liqueur-like nuance.

Base. Woody, serious and elegant, with only a faint hint of fermentation; no sourness or barnyard notes.

Evolution. Slow and very tenacious: a high-quality oud, restrained and refined.

• Clean oud: the character of agarwood without the animalic side, for those looking for an elegant oud.
• Serious gourmands: its cacao facet links with cacao, tobacco, tonka bean and vanilla without becoming cloying.
• Florals: with rose, jasmine and tuberose, as a fresh woody base.
• Incense and attars: with olibanum, sandalwood, saffron and rose.

Check the batch certificate before formulating.

• Plants of the World Online — Aquilaria sinensis (Lour.) Spreng. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
• Naef, R. (2011). The volatile and semi-volatile constituents of agarwood, the infected heartwood of Aquilaria species: a review. Flavour and Fragrance Journal 26(2): 73–87.
• López-Sampson, A. and Page, T. (2018). History of use and trade of agarwood. Economic Botany 72: 107–129.
• Plate: Royle, J. F. Illustrations of the Botany of the Himalayan Mountains (1839), pl. 36, Aquilaria agallocha, a closely related species.