Aquilaria sinensis attracts countless people because of its mysterious fragrance. Most people like Aquilaria sinensis because of its charming fragrance.
Nowadays, agarwood is no longer touched by a few people in ancient times, but has gradually entered the lives of ordinary people. Moreover, unlike ancient incense, agarwood is widely used to make carvings, bracelet ornaments and so on in addition to incense. However, because the fragrance of agarwood is slow at room temperature, the general fragrance is obviously not as strong as that of incense, but usually it will smell some fragrance when it is near. However, when it is cold in winter, the fragrance of agarwood bracelets or carvings will become very, very weak. Why? In fact, this is because the temperature in winter is too low, which leads to the slow volatilization of agarwood oil, and the fragrance is not easy to be emitted. The second point is because the climate in winter is too dry and there is less water in the air, so that the volatilized oil spreads more slowly and the fragrance is lighter.
Why is the value of agarwood so high? The price of agarwood is always high, comparable to gold. The reasons are mainly reflected in the following three aspects: the fragrance is unique. First of all, agarwood is the "king of all kinds of fragrances", and its fragrance is clear and transparent, or sweet and fragrant, which changes with the morning and evening, wet and dry at different times and environments. Such a wonderful and outstanding charm is beyond the reach of any other spices. It takes a long time to make incense. Secondly, not every agarwood tree can make incense. The formation of agarwood requires specific conditions. Not only such a long time can't be achieved overnight under artificial circumstances.
People's life span is only a hundred years, and this is only the beginning for the formation of agarwood. Wu Zhenfang, who was an official in the early Qing Dynasty to supervise the suggestion, mentioned in Miscellanies of Lingnan that: the fragrance of sinking water, pregnant with ancient trees, born in deep mountains, or hidden or unpredictable, seems to be unknown.
However, the tree will begin to bear fruit in a hundred years, and it will begin to grow in a hundred years. Although heaven and earth do not love its treasures, they are inexhaustible and easy to be poor. There is a reason why incense is rare.
The poem says, "A hundred-year-old rock roots, tap the roots and listen to the water sink." Qinan, which has better quality, even needs thousands of years to mature and mellow.
Waiting for such a long time is also an important reason for the high price of agarwood. It is difficult to collect incense. Finally, it is extremely difficult to collect agarwood.
Aquilaria sinensis usually grows in dense wild virgin forest, which is different from other wood cutting. It can be identified intuitively, especially if it is buried deep in soil or swamp, which requires rich identification experience, which has not been detected by manual instruments so far. Zhang Changqing wrote in "Li Qi Ji Wen": "Those who can pick incense are called Xiangzi, and foreigners settle down in the mountains with silver rice, making fog and dew, touching evil beasts, and working in it for ten days and months, but occasionally they get it, but the unfortunate ones have nothing to gain."
Aquilaria Resinatum: the first fragrance and the king of literary play, Aquilaria Resinatum is an extremely rare and precious treasure given to people by nature. Aquilaria sinensis is not only a valuable Chinese medicine, but also a sacred object for Buddhist rituals and offerings, and it is also one of the main spices of Xiangdao culture.
Aquilaria sinensis enjoys the reputation of "the first of all incense" and "the king of incense". Aquilaria sinensis is a kind of balsam of Aquilaria sinensis, an evergreen tree of Daphne family, which grows in tropical and subtropical areas. During the growth process, the trunk branches of this tree are damaged by nature (lightning, typhoon, etc.) or man-made (cutting, digging holes, etc.), and then invaded and parasitized by fungi. Under the action of enzymes in bacteria, the starch stored in wood parenchyma cells has undergone a series of changes, and it has been deposited for many years, and finally formed balsam, which is Aquilaria sinensis, also known as agar.
Generally, it will take ten years or more for natural fragrant trees to have relatively developed resin glands, and it is possible to form "fragrant knots". After the formation of "fragrant knot", it will take a long time to really "mature".
Some fragrant trees have a life span of several hundred years or even thousands of years, and the agarwood that remains after lodging often has a "life span" of several hundred years or more, so the ancients praised agarwood for "gathering the aura of heaven and earth for thousands of years". How to buy agarwood? The price stems from the fact that the price of rare agarwood has soared, and scarcity is the most critical reason.
On the one hand, the formation of agarwood is very difficult. Not all agarwood trees can bear agarwood. Due to the shortage of resin glands of short-lived agarwood trees, it is generally only possible for agarwood trees to form agarwood for decades. Moreover, due to a large number of logging in the past, Aquilaria sinensis is very rare at present.
The reasons for the formation of agarwood are complicated. Many factors, such as the number of years of fragrance, the amount of oil, living trees or dead trees, directly affect the quality of fragrance. At present, there is a lack of uniform quality identification and evaluation standards in the market. Whether agarwood can sink in water and the quality of agarwood grade is an important factor to determine the price of agarwood.
According to insiders, it is not easy to identify agarwood. As far as most agarwood is concerned, the darker its color, the denser its texture and the better its quality. For example, agarwood got its name because it sank in water. The water in agarwood sinks, and the water agarwood with high oil content is often darker in color. The hardness of high-quality water sinking can even be compared with that of stones, and it generally sinks when entering water.
However, the high-quality Phoebe bournei is semi-sinking and semi-floating after entering the water, and the texture is relatively soft and sticky, and the cut pieces can even form xiang zhu. Therefore, it is difficult to identify the authenticity of agarwood only by its appearance, hardness, density and other indicators. At the same time, counterfeiters can also use the method of soaking in medicinal liquid and sesame oil to achieve the effect of confusing the fake with the real.
At present, the simplest and most effective method is to use the oil content and smell of agarwood to determine the grade of agarwood. Generally speaking, the aroma of agarwood is rich and stable when it is smoked and burned, and it lasts for a long time. However, fake agarwood has a complicated smell because most of it is added with chemical components. However, it should be noted that under normal conditions, the smell of Chimonanthus fragrans is also obvious, while during smoking, the head fragrance, the original fragrance and the tail fragrance will change obviously.
2. Ask you about thymelaeaceae.
Thymelaeaceae is a kind of wood, spice and traditional Chinese medicine, which is the dry woody part of trees such as Aquilaria sinensis or Aquilaria agallocha. When the tree cores of plants in thymelaeaceae are infected by trauma or fungi, they will secrete a lot of resin with strong fragrance. These parts are also called "water agarwood" because of their high density. In many parts of the world, thymelaeaceae is a precious spice, which is used to burn incense, extract spices, add them to wine, or directly carve them into decorations.
] morphological characteristics
Into irregular blocks or helmets, and some are small pieces. One side of the piece is solid, woody, chiseled, light brown, with brown-black patches or small spots (secretions); On the other side, it is the resin seepage consolidation surface, which is yellowish brown, uneven and cracked, and there are honeycomb holes. Under the magnifying glass, it is granular and loose, and it falls off in powder when it is cut by a knife. Hard, mostly insoluble in water. It has a special aroma and a slightly bitter taste; When burning, it emits thick smoke and strong aroma, and black oil oozes out.
pharmacological action
Aquilaria Resinatum is the best sacred product for Buddha's practice. According to Compendium of Materia Medica, thymelaeaceae has strong antibacterial effect, fragrance into spleen, refreshing mind and regulating qi, nourishing five internal organs, relieving cough and resolving phlegm, warming stomach and spleen, ventilating and relieving pain, and can be used as medicine. It is the best medicine.
Slightly warm, pungent and bitter. Activating qi to relieve pain, warming to stop vomiting, and relieving asthma. It can be used for treating chest distension, stuffy pain, stomach cold, vomiting, hiccup, kidney deficiency, qi deficiency and dyspnea. Dosage 1.5~4.5g, the decoction should be added later.
The efficacy of agarwood lowers the temperature and warms the kidney. Activating qi to relieve pain, warming to stop vomiting, and relieving asthma. It can be used for treating chest distension, stuffy pain, stomach cold, vomiting, hiccup, kidney deficiency, qi deficiency and dyspnea. Aquilaria sinensis contains volatile oil and resin, and the volatile oil contains Agarospirol, which has sedative effect. Medically, it has the effects of promoting qi circulation, relieving pain, regulating middle warmer, calming liver, warming kidney and absorbing qi. Indications: it can be used for treating qi-adverse asthma, vomiting and hiccups, abdominal distension and pain, waist and knees deficiency and cold, large intestine deficiency and secret, urine stranguria, and male semen cold.
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3. Some common sense questions about agarwood
Mainly distributed in Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and other regions.
The height of the agarwood tree is about 30-40 meters. When a wound is formed on the surface or inside the agarwood tree, in order to protect the injured part, resin will gather around the wound. When the accumulated resin concentration reaches a certain level, this part is removed, which is the usable agarwood.
However, wounds are not the only reason for resin coagulation, and agarwood resin will naturally form in the interior of trees and decaying parts. How to tell the true and false agarwood? (1) Look: Generally, agarwood is dark brown, dark blue, yellow and white, and there are other colors. Different varieties, styles and colors are different. The real agarwood is worn, and the more you wear it, the darker it becomes; ⑵ Smell: This is the most important identification method. Generally, the smell of agarwood feels like a familiar medicinal smell at first, but when you smell it carefully, you can't remember what it is.
The main way to judge the smell of agarwood is to "drill". What is a drill? That is, the smell of agarwood is drilled into the nostrils. The smell of real agarwood goes into the nose along the thread-like path. To prove this, just light the live agarwood and look at the path of its smoke carefully, and you will know that the smoke is emitted by filar silk.
If the smell you smell is not from drilling, at least it can show that it is not second-class, and its value should be considered in combination with other factors; Another way to judge is to "penetrate", put the agarwood in a bag and close it tightly, so that the real agarwood can be fragrant through this bag; The third judgment method is "putting", which can be placed next to the pillow. During sleep at night, you can smell intermittent smells. If it's a fake, the taste is not intermittent.
Aquilaria bracelet pure natural Indonesia Kalimantan flower Qinan (3) touch: second-class water agarwood looks like a layer of oil, but it doesn't get dirty when touched, and it won't get oily. (4) Submerged or not: It is said in the market that good agarwood and true agarwood can be submerged, which is only one-sided.
Because there are also agarwood made of mixed wood soaked in sesame oil on the market now, criminals can also make fake agarwood submerged by manual treatment, so it is not correct to explain whether it is genuine or not just by drowning. The real agarwood is getting darker and brighter as you wear it.
Because really agarwood is like jade, it absorbs people's aura and essence before it becomes black and bright. In recent two years, agarwood has quickly entered the public's field of vision. In all kinds of antique cities, teahouse clubs, department stores, online electronic malls, etc., you can see a wide range of agarwood products such as beads bracelets, pendants, carvings and ornaments.
However, nowadays, the agarwood market is mixed, the quality is mixed, and the price is even more varied. What is more fatal is that more than 90% of the agarwood on the market are fakes such as soaking oil and compression. Many novices often lament the water depth of agarwood after being cheated, thus giving up collecting agarwood. All these fundamentally restrict the development of agarwood culture in China.
Although I am not an expert or scholar, I am deeply interested in Aquilaria sinensis. I have studied it carefully for three or five years and accumulated a little superficial experience. I hope I can help the vast number of Xiangyou to get rid of the fog and look at the world, avoid detours and buy high-quality natural Aquilaria sinensis with the least money. Generally speaking, agarwood is different from the familiar scented wood such as sandalwood, and agarwood is not a tree variety.
But a special tree (Aquilaria of Daphne) secretes resin to protect the tree after being damaged by blows, wind bending, pests and animals, and the resin gathers around the wound. At this time, the wounds of trees will be invaded and parasitized by fungi. Under the action of substance enzymes in the bacteria, starch stored in parenchyma cells of trees will undergo a series of changes, forming balsam. Finally, after a long period of cumulative deposition, mixed solid condensate of balsam and wood fiber will be produced, which is the real agarwood.
Among the many agarwood products, bracelets are often the largest and the favorite variety of ordinary players, so here we focus on some key points of purchasing agarwood beads bracelets: First, look at the weight. Thymelaeaceae itself is not heavy, and it will get heavier after being injured and oily.
The longer the fragrance, the more oil, the higher the grade and the heavier the weight. Weight is the biggest factor that determines the value of agarwood beads bracelets, which everyone must pay attention to.
There is a professional agarwood knowledge sharing website called Longmuge, which contains a list of submerged weights of agarwood beads, which introduces the different weights of various qualities of agarwood. Interested friends can go in and compare them carefully. In addition, it should be especially pointed out here that the heavier the weight, the better. If it exceeds a defined value of the weight, you should be careful.
Because fake agarwood often imitates the highest quality agarwood bracelet first, the weight of fake agarwood is generally very heavy (in many cases, it will exceed the upper limit), and it often sinks. For example, the following picture shows 15.5mm genuine submerged agarwood beads bracelet, weighing 3 1 g, and the price is over100000. If the price difference of agarwood bracelets with the same quality and weight you see is too big, you must pay attention.
These days, there is nothing to be found. Second, smell the fragrance.
Speaking of fragrance, I have to mention the producing areas, not to mention the Hui 'an agarwood from Vietnam, Hainan, Cambodia, etc. This kind of agarwood is mainly incense, and only a few bracelets have survived, and there is basically no circulation in the market. In addition, the best first-line producing areas of agarwood bracelets currently circulating in the market are: Dalagan, Maninau, Brunei, and Xima (Malaysia).
Second-tier producing areas mainly include Kalimantan, Hillan, Papua, Gayabula, Malaok and so on. The selection of agarwood by producing area is not static, because every main producing area and sub-producing area will have bad fragrance and good fragrance, and the aroma-forming process is related to climate, soil, fungi and aging year, and the aroma is ever-changing.
In any case, it is pale to describe the fragrance of agarwood in different producing areas from words. If you really want to understand the unique fragrance of agarwood, you must personally experience it. The Longmuge, an old agarwood shop in Shanghai mentioned above, has strictly distinguished the producing areas, and different kinds of agarwood in different producing areas are relatively complete. If you have time and energy, you may wish to improve your identification ability by comparing in kind! The experience of aroma is a process. If you are not born with a keen sense of smell, it takes a long time to identify the quality and origin of agarwood by aroma.
4. Common sense of agarwood: identification of authenticity, origin, use and how to maintain it.
Mainly distributed in Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and other regions.
The height of the agarwood tree is about 30-40 meters. When a wound is formed on the surface or inside the agarwood tree, in order to protect the injured part, resin will gather around the wound. When the accumulated resin concentration reaches a certain level, this part is removed, which is the usable agarwood.
However, wounds are not the only reason for resin coagulation, and agarwood resin will naturally form in the interior of trees and decaying parts. How to tell the true and false agarwood? (1) Look: Generally, agarwood is dark brown, dark blue, yellow and white, and there are other colors. Different varieties, styles and colors are different. The real agarwood is worn, and the more you wear it, the darker it becomes; ⑵ Smell: This is the most important identification method. Generally, the smell of agarwood feels like a familiar medicinal smell at first, but when you smell it carefully, you can't remember what it is.
The main way to judge the smell of agarwood is to "drill". What is a drill? That is, the smell of agarwood is drilled into the nostrils. The smell of real agarwood goes into the nose along the thread-like path. To prove this, just light the live agarwood and look at the path of its smoke carefully, and you will know that the smoke is emitted by filar silk.
If the smell you smell is not from drilling, at least it can show that it is not second-class, and its value should be considered in combination with other factors; Another way to judge is to "penetrate", put the agarwood in a bag and close it tightly, so that the real agarwood can be fragrant through this bag; The third judgment method is "putting", which can be placed next to the pillow. During sleep at night, you can smell intermittent smells. If it's a fake, the taste is not intermittent.
Aquilaria bracelet pure natural Indonesia Kalimantan flower Qinan (3) touch: second-class water agarwood looks like a layer of oil, but it doesn't get dirty when touched, and it won't get oily. (4) Submerged or not: It is said in the market that good agarwood and true agarwood can be submerged, which is only one-sided.
Because there are also agarwood made of mixed wood soaked in sesame oil on the market now, criminals can also make fake agarwood submerged by manual treatment, so it is not correct to explain whether it is genuine or not just by drowning. The real agarwood gets darker and brighter as you wear it.
Because really agarwood is like jade, it absorbs people's aura and essence before it becomes black and bright. In recent two years, agarwood has quickly entered the public's field of vision. In all kinds of antique cities, teahouse clubs, department stores, online electronic malls, etc., you can see a wide range of agarwood products such as beads bracelets, pendants, carvings and ornaments.
However, nowadays, the agarwood market is mixed, the quality is mixed, and the price is even more varied. What is more fatal is that more than 90% of the agarwood on the market are fakes such as soaking oil and compression. Many novices often lament the water depth of agarwood after being cheated, thus giving up collecting agarwood. All these fundamentally restrict the development of agarwood culture in China.
Although I am not an expert or scholar, I am deeply interested in Aquilaria sinensis. I have studied it carefully for three or five years and accumulated a little superficial experience. I hope I can help the vast number of Xiangyou to get rid of the fog and look at the world, avoid detours and buy high-quality natural Aquilaria sinensis with the least money. Generally speaking, agarwood is different from the familiar scented wood such as sandalwood, and agarwood is not a tree variety.
But a special tree (Aquilaria of Daphne) secretes resin to protect the tree after being damaged by blows, wind bending, pests and animals, and the resin gathers around the wound. At this time, the wounds of trees will be invaded and parasitized by fungi. Under the action of substance enzymes in the bacteria, starch stored in parenchyma cells of trees will undergo a series of changes, forming balsam. Finally, after a long period of cumulative deposition, mixed solid condensate of balsam and wood fiber will be produced, which is the real agarwood.
Among the many agarwood products, bracelets are often the largest and the favorite variety of ordinary players, so here we focus on some key points of purchasing agarwood beads bracelets: First, look at the weight. Thymelaeaceae itself is not heavy, and it will get heavier after being injured and oily.
The longer the fragrance, the more oil, the higher the grade and the heavier the weight. Weight is the biggest factor that determines the value of agarwood beads bracelets, which everyone must pay attention to.
There is a professional agarwood knowledge sharing website called Longmuge, which contains a list of submerged weights of agarwood beads, which introduces the different weights of various qualities of agarwood. Interested friends can go in and compare them carefully. In addition, it should be especially pointed out here that the heavier the weight, the better. If it exceeds a defined value of the weight, you should be careful.
Because fake agarwood often imitates the highest quality agarwood bracelet first, the weight of fake agarwood is generally very heavy (in many cases, it will exceed the upper limit), and it often sinks. For example, the following picture shows 15.5mm genuine submerged agarwood beads bracelet, weighing 3 1 g, and the price is over100000. If the price difference of agarwood bracelets with the same quality and weight you see is too big, you must pay attention.
These days, there is nothing to be found. Second, smell the fragrance.
Speaking of fragrance, I have to mention the producing areas, not to mention the Hui 'an agarwood from Vietnam, Hainan, Cambodia, etc. This kind of agarwood is mainly incense, and only a few bracelets survive in the world, and there is basically no circulation in the market. In addition, the best first-line producing areas of agarwood bracelets currently circulating in the market are: Dalagan, Maninau, Brunei, and Xima (Malaysia).
Second-tier producing areas mainly include Kalimantan, Hillan, Papua, Gayabula, Malaok and so on. The selection of agarwood by producing area is not static, because every main producing area and sub-producing area will have bad fragrance and good fragrance, and the aroma-forming process is related to climate, soil, fungi and aging year, and the aroma is ever-changing.
In any case, it is pale to describe the fragrance of agarwood in different producing areas from words. If you really want to understand the unique fragrance of agarwood, you must personally experience it. The Longmuge, an old agarwood shop in Shanghai mentioned above, has strictly distinguished the producing areas, and different kinds of agarwood in different producing areas are relatively complete. If you have time and energy, you may wish to improve your identification ability by comparing in kind! The experience of aroma is a process. If you are not born with a keen sense of smell, it is also necessary to identify the quality and origin of agarwood by aroma.
5. How does agarwood play?
The patina layer on the surface of Aquilaria sinensis is mainly formed by the oil of Aquilaria sinensis (linalool), the oil of human skin, sweat stains and air oxidation.
Thick patina on the surface of Aquilaria sinensis will greatly weaken the fragrance of Aquilaria sinensis. At this time, you can soak the towel in hot water, wring it until it doesn't come out, and then wrap the Aquilaria sinensis bracelet. After waiting for a few minutes, you can wipe off the patina on the surface of Aquilaria sinensis with toilet paper, and it is best to put it in a sealed jar for one day. In addition, there is another method. Most people use sandpaper to polish it. However, this polishing method has a certain loss on the beads themselves. Although it is very small, if it is polished frequently, the beads will become smaller and smaller.
Therefore, when the patina is still very thin at the beginning of the patina wrapping, you can wrap it with a warm towel that has been completely wrung out for a few minutes, and then wipe off the patina layer on the surface with toilet paper. This method does no harm to the beads themselves and consumes very little oil. Unless the patina is very thick, consider using sandpaper to polish it, but the sandpaper should be very fine, usually 3000 mesh is the best, and the minimum is 2000 mesh. Pay attention to it when polishing, don't use too much force, just polish it until the oil line texture is obvious and the whole bead should be polished evenly, otherwise it will destroy the appearance.
6. Common knowledge of maintaining agarwood in Yazhuang, Vietnam
(1) Avoid contact with acid and alkali substances. Generally speaking, agarwood is not afraid of natural water such as rain, sweat, tap water, etc. However, it cannot touch water with washing products, such as soap, soap, washing powder water, etc., especially shampoo. Together with this water, the agarwood oil distributed on the surface of agarwood will have a chemical reaction and be washed away, so that the heavy fragrance you like will be very weak.
The agarwood bracelet will also form natural patina when worn at ordinary times, and the taste will be lighter. When you sleep at night, put it under a pillow or wrap it in a sealed plastic bag, and when you take it out, the fragrance will remain the same. If it is accidentally mixed with the water of washing products, the taste becomes weak, and there is also a way to save it, that is, gently polish it with sandpaper of more than 400#, and the taste will reappear. (This method is not recommended in general)
(2) Aquilaria sinensis bracelets are very afraid of exposure, and strong sunlight will deteriorate Aquilaria sinensis. Therefore, it is best not to expose them to temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius when wearing Aquilaria sinensis bracelets. When not in use, put them in a sealed bag and keep them in a cool place, and pay attention to moisture prevention and avoid high temperature and exposure. The ignition point of agarwood is low, so be sure to stay away from the fire candle, and it should not be placed in overheated and hot places, which will hurt agarwood.
(3) to prevent the impact of hard objects and beating. Be careful not to be scratched by sharp objects when playing with agarwood products. Many carved pieces of agarwood are skillfully carved according to the shape of agarwood, so care should be taken not to crush or damage them when wearing them. There is another special point to pay attention to. It is often seen that some people wear accessories of agarwood and spray perfume. As everyone knows, no matter how good the perfume is, how can it be compared with the taste of agarwood? It is a pity that the vulgarity of perfume will destroy the elegance of agarwood and make the taste of agarwood stale.
(4) Usually, the agarwood bracelets don't need to be oiled or waxed like mahogany. We should smell the original taste of agarwood. When the agarwood bracelet is worn at ordinary times, it will also form a natural patina, and the taste will be lighter. It doesn't matter. When you sleep at night, put it under a pillow or wrap it in a sealed plastic bag, and the fragrance will remain the same when you take it out. If the agarwood hand beads are dirty, you can wipe them several times with a cloth made of slightly moist cotton yarn.
7. How to play agarwood pendant
How to play agarwood bracelets:
1, first rub the agarwood bracelet with a soft cotton plate for a week and polish it.
2. Leave it naturally for another week, let the air on the surface of the beads contact, form a uniform and dense oxide film, and naturally dry at the same time.
3, start using the hand plate, it should be noted that the hands must be clean, sweaty hands can not be directly plate, continuous plate for one to two weeks.
4. When a thin patina is formed on the surface of the agarwood beads, it is necessary to leave the bracelets for a week to allow the patina to harden.
5. Repeat the process of 3 and 4. After a period of persistence, the agarwood bracelet will have a moist and restrained jade luster. More common sense of agarwood, you can also pay attention to Yongfa agarwood