Agarwood essential oil or as it is sometimes called Aloes wood is a pretty impressive oil to find.
Perfumers may also list it as Oodh, or Oud Oil.
It is obtained from the resin of a tree called Aquilaria which grows in South East Asia. It begins to smell the way that it does because of an infection from a mould that has taken hold called Phialophora Parasitica.
Before the mould infected the sap, it had had a light green mild scent but after it takes hold it transforms into a wonderfully deep, dark, luscious unguent scent.
The Aquilaria tree can grow up 40 meters high and a massive 60 centimetres in diameter. Its flowers are an incredibly pretty snow-white colour and when you smell them they have a heady sickly sweet fragrance.
There are in fact 11 species of Aquilaria trees (Its scientific name is Aquilara Malaccensis Lam. or Aquilaria agallocha)which can be found in Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Southern China and Vietnam. Strangely though it is thought that only 4 or possibly 6 at most of them can produce the highly acclaimed Oudh oil resin.
Bizarrely it is quite a frequent occurrence that the trees become infected. Once that happens then the mould slowly kills the tree, so a long wait of up to a hundred years will finally lead to the resin forming deep within the heartwood. The treasure that is forming is literally worth more than gold.
As it forms the parasitic mould drains the very lifeblood from the tree and finally the dead wood falls away leaving the rarest and most sacred oil on the planet behind.
In fact this is a true treasure, well the really good stuff is, we are talking serious money, $13,000 for 16 ounces of the resin. Unsurprisingly it rates as one of the most precious natural products in the world.
Commercially of course a large scale market economy is simply not viable for such a costly product, so a market has erupted in cultivated oil. Ecologically more sound this oil comes from trees which have a sustainable resource but as such also come at a lower price tag too.
This is great news for us because it means that we can enjoy the benefits at a much cheaper price but also feel reassured that we are not pillaging the forest supply.
Blending
Agarwood is a sublime perfumer’s oil.
It lends a deep resonant incredibly sexy base note to a blend, and is well used in the best design houses.
It blends well with floral absolutes and woody spices to bring warm oriental notes to fragrances.
Best suited with
*Rose Otto
*Rose Absolute
*Myrrh
*Saffron
*Sandalwood
*Tuberose absolute
*Jasmine Absolute
*Jasmine Sambac Absolute,
*Cinnamon oil.
Never used essential oils?- here's how to use them
Medicinal Uses For Agarwood Essential Oil
Surprisingly, for an essential oil which has so many reputed uses – and makes very big claims I might add there is very little scientific evidence in terms of clinical trials available and so it has been very hard to back up most of these claims with papers for you.
Most of the uses and actions I can only assume have been attributed through many years of folk medicine and let’s be honest...who is going to argue with a Shaman?
Not me, that’s for sure!
So I have divided the uses and actions into Mind, Body, Spirit because this it seems to have reputed properties in equal numbers for each.
Spiritual Aspects Of Agarwood Essential Oil
Provides motivation and devotion to meditation.
Facilitates communication with the transcendent.
Drives away evil spirits
Removes impurities
Expels negative energies
Creating natural order in your sacred living areas
Opens the crown chakra and the pineal.
Helps the natural flow of Qi
Emotional and Mental Uses for Agarwood Essential Oil
Agarwood essential oil pours in energy or lust for life. If you are feeling run down, exhausted or just a little jaded, it will lift you and really put some zest back into your life. It is a really energising tonic. It refreshes the mind and body and takes away exhaustion.It soothes your nerves, if you are edgy or if you feel like you are suffering from stress or pressure it will definitely help you. It probably has something to do with the way that it slows your breathing down.
It calms the nervous system, relieves anxiety, invokes a sense of strength and peace.
It brings alertness.
It enhances cerebral functioning.
Remedies nervous disorders, for example neurosis, obsessive behaviour, etc.
It is a companion in solitude.
Agarwood is cited in Chinese, Tibetan and Ayurvedic medicine for treating many aspects of mental illness.
Agarwood Essential Oil and Sex
It probably seems a strange place in the article to put thiis but it is deliberate.
One of the main uses for agarwood is as an aphrodisiac, and it has been used for this for centuries, you can find countless references to it through religious texts.
Agarwood is one of the aphrodisiacs that work on aspects of your being. On an emotional, physical and spiritual level and brings them together.
If you revisit the notes above about the different ways that the monks in different religions use it, you will see that they use it to open chakras.
These wheels of energy not only vitalise the internal organs but also connect with the divine.
If you take an example of tantric sex, the act of the physical union is not the desired outcome. The orgasm or nirvana is the outlet of the two souls coming together rather than their bodies.
Take this idea to the oil for a moment, agarwood vitalises the organs and connects the etheric bodies causing huge rushes of energy. Add to that its ability to calm nerves and you have a very powerful, uninhibited aphrodisiac.
Medicinal Uses for Agarwood Essential Oil
Stimulant, tonic, aphrodisiac, diuretic, Antimicrobial, carminative (flatulence), febrifuge (lowers fever), digestive and bronchial.
Nausea
Regurgitation
Smallpox
Rheumatism,
Illness during and after childbirth,
Relieves spasms of the digestive system and even certain kinds of cancer.
Colic,
Abdominal pain,
Cirrhosis of the liver
Respiratory systems
Shortness of breath
Chills
General pains
Asthma
Weakness in the elderly
Problems of the urinary tract
Relieves epilepsy
Agarwood Essential Oil works as a director or focuser for other medicines.
I cannot stress to you highly enough that although I have seen essential oils do remarkable, even incredible things, I am in no way suggesting that you replace your doctor’s care for chronic conditions such as asthma, cirrhosis, epilepsy or cancer with Agarwood essential oil...or any other essential oil for that matter.
I would however comment that aromatherapy is a complementary medicine can work incredibly alongside it, on many occasions making therapy considerably more effective.
Please treat yourself wisely and safely.
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From agarwood essential oil to home page of the aromatherapy website www.aromatherapy-natural-products.com
