A Detailed Guide to the Latest Benefits and Uses of Agarwood
Agarwood comes in diverse and precious types and is the finest sacred treasure for Buddhist worship and practice. The “Compendium of Materia Medica” records that agarwood has strong antibacterial properties, that its fragrance enters the spleen, clears the mind and regulates qi, tonifies the five organs, relieves cough and dissolves phlegm, warms the stomach and spleen, unblocks qi and relieves pain, and can be used as medicine, making it a supreme-grade medicinal material. It is slightly warm in nature and pungent and bitter in taste. It moves qi and relieves pain, warms the middle and stops vomiting, and improves qi reception to calm wheezing. It is used to treat conditions such as chest and abdominal distension, fullness and pain, stomach cold with vomiting and hiccups, and kidney deficiency with reversed qi and severe wheezing.
Medicinal Benefits
Agarwood is aromatic in odor, pungent in nature, slightly warm, and non-toxic. It has benefits such as moving qi and relieving pain, warming the middle and stopping vomiting, and improving qi reception to calm wheezing. It is often used to treat conditions such as reversed qi and chest fullness, severe wheezing and angina pectoris, abdominal masses, stomach cold with vomiting, cholera, cold sperm in men, and foul qi and malignant sores.
There are also many related records in traditional Chinese medicine classics. For example, the “Essentials of Materia Medica” says it “can descend qi and drop phlegm and drool, can both descend and rise, and because its qi is fragrant and enters the spleen, it can regulate all qi and harmonize the middle. Its color is black. Its body is yang, so it enters the right arm and the gate of life, warms essence and assists yang, moves qi without damaging qi, and warms the middle without adding fire.” The “Daming Materia Medica” says it “harmonizes the middle and tonifies the five organs, benefits essence and strengthens yang, warms the waist and knees, and stops cramps, vomiting, diarrhea, and cold qi”; the “Compendium of Materia Medica” says it can “treat upper heat and lower cold, reversed qi and severe wheezing, deficiency constipation of the large intestine, qi strangury with difficult urination, and cold sperm in men.”
From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, burning incense should belong to “odor therapy” among external treatment methods. Agarwood pieces do not produce an open flame. Burning slowly will turn them black and carbonized, and the curling white smoke gives off fragrance in all directions. By using the odor produced by burning, it can support immunity and ward off evil, sterilize and disinfect, refresh the mind and benefit intelligence, and promote health and wellness. It is said to also have effects such as repelling mosquitoes and insects and preventing moisture, so it is highly favored by people. In the past, people popularized burning agarwood to ward off evil, remove impurity, and drive away ghosts, which is actually the same principle. Agarwood is also processed into traditional Chinese medicine decoction pieces, such as agarwood powder, agarwood decoction pieces, and agarwood qu. Modern clinical trial research shows that agarwood is also a specific drug for gastric cancer and a very good analgesic. At present, there are more than 160 kinds of Chinese patent medicines formulated with agarwood, such as Chenxiang Huazhi Wan, Chenxiang Yangwei Wan, Chenxiang Huaqi Wan, and Bawei Chenxiang Pian.
Collection Value
After the agarwood tree begins to form agarwood due to disease, it will undergo a long growth period, requiring at least several years to more than ten years, but the formation of a piece of high-quality agarwood takes decades or even over a hundred years. Therefore, the output of agarwood is extremely small, while market demand is very large. It can be seen that agarwood is very precious and has high collection value.
In recent years, the transaction rate of agarwood auctions has been relatively high, and the transaction prices are often several times or even dozens of times the estimated price. The auction price of one gram of agarwood ranges from 1000 yuan to over ten thousand yuan, and the highest price once exceeded 10,000 US dollars. It is reported that in Vietnam, which is rich in agarwood, the total output of high-quality agarwood last year was only 18 kilograms. In the auction market, international auction companies such as Sotheby's and Christie's have all offered agarwood, while domestic companies such as Hanhai, Guardian, and Guyitian have all successfully offered auctions of agarwood artworks and incense culture artworks. Among them, Beijing Guyitian International Auction Co., Ltd. has achieved a 100% transaction rate in many agarwood auctions since 2006.
Beauty Benefits
In beauty products, agarwood occupies an important position. It is a fragrance fixative for various high-grade spices and beauty products. Agarwood can not only make the skin moist and comfortable, but can also remove stubborn spots and marks. Just an extremely tiny amount of agarwood essence can make the scent of perfume and cosmetics last longer.
Environmental Benefits
The agarwood tree is a deep-rooted tree species and is the best soil and water conservationist. At the same time, the fragrant tree is evergreen all year round and gives off a unique and elegant fragrance. Agarwood forests are quite beautiful, relaxing, and full of fragrance, making them suitable for recreation. The fragrant tree also has a magical characteristic: it repels insects without killing them, does not exclude other plant species, and can coexist and prosper with surrounding plants, thereby truly benefiting ecological maintenance, purifying the air, and beautifying the environment. It can be planted on both sides of city streets, around office buildings, in residential communities, in courtyard landscaping, and even in balcony potted plants.
Other Uses
In addition to medicinal use, more and more agarwood health products and daily necessities are being developed, such as agarwood air freshener, agarwood sunscreen, agarwood toothpaste, soap, and shampoo. Sometimes, it is even used to soak wine to increase the aroma of the wine. In addition, the wood, trunk heads, and roots of agarwood can all be used to make high-grade incense sticks for worship and incense burning. The bark of the fragrant tree is white in color, fine in texture, and tough in fiber, and has been a raw material for making high-grade paper since ancient times. Paper made from the fragrant tree as a raw material is collectively called honey-fragrance paper and fragrant bark paper. The fruit of the fragrant tree can be supplied to manufacturers for oil pressing and extraction of essence to make cosmetics or fragrant oil, while the leaves can be used to make tea.