Aquilaria Species: In Vitro Culture and the Production Eaglewood (Agarwood)
Aquilaria species are tropic and subtropic evergreen trees, (Fig 1. A,B) which are distributed in southeast Asia, mainly in India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and China.
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1 Introduction Aquilaria species are tropic and subtropic evergreen trees, (Fig 1. A,B) which are distributed in southeast Asia, mainly in India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and China. Eaglewood is a traditional Chinese drug, wh ich is used to treat several diseases in tradition al Chinese medicine. Eaglewood is not anormal metabolite in plant tissue in Aquilaria species; it is believed that the production of eaglewood is caused by stress metabolism in these plants. 1.1 Distribution and Importance of the Plant
The genus Aquilaria, (family Thymelaeaceae) has about 15 species in the world, distributed in southeast Asia (Maberley 1987). A. agallocha Roxb. and A. malaccensis Lam, distributed in India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines, are the important species for production of good-quality eaglewood. Other species, such as A. beccariana Van Tiegh, A. rostra ta Ridley, and A. hirta Ridley are less important in producing eaglewood. A. sinensis (Lour) Gilg. is the only species of Aquilaria which has been recorded in the endangered plants in China (Fu and Jin 1992). A. sinensis is distributed in Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian provinces, growing in secondary mixed forests on hillsides. However, these areas are becoming smaller as a result of human activity. Sometimes, only a few A. sinensis trees can be found. Now, it has become difficult to find eaglewood from A. sinensis, even though the market requirement is still growing in China. Since the 18th century, eaglewood has been collected from A. sinensis and used as a drug in China, and it is still a valuable Chinese drug recorded in the Chinese pharmacopeia. Unfortunately, up to now, there has been little pharmacological research on the eaglewood drug and it is only used in folk medicine, as since ancient times in China.1t is also used as incense in Buddhist's ceremonies in China and Japan, producing a very pleasant aroma when burnt.
I South
China Institute of Botany, Academia Sinica, Guangzhou, China
Biotechnology in Agriculture and Farestry, Val. 33 Medicinal and Aromatic Plants VIII (ed. by Y.P.S. Bajaj) ©Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1995
Aquilaria Species
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Fig. l. A Aqui/aria sinensis (Lour) Gilg, tree growing in Kaiping Guangdong. Age about 50 years. B Branch with fruits
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QiShu-Yuan
1.2 Collection of Eaglewood and Market Demand
Eaglewood is a pathological product formed as the result of a fungal disease CQi Shu-yuan et al. 1992). It is hard to recognize which of the trees contain eaglewood. Generally, old trees do not collect eaglewood, but the fungi infect them. A method of production of some medicinal herb collector is to make several cuts on the tree and, after several months or years, to collect the eaglewood from these cuts. In this way, the quality of eaglewood changes very much with each different collector. The market and its exploitation of eaglewood is restricted by its natural resources. It is hard to estimate how great the market is or what resources of eaglewood exist in the world. 1.3 Chemical C
