Quality of Agarwood Produced by Whole Tree Agarwood-inducing Technique (Agar-Wit) from China and Southeast Asian Countries / 中国药学杂志

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the similarities and differences of the quality of agarwood produced by agar-wit from China and Southeast Asian countries. METHODS: The sensory characteristic, identification item, extract, content determination, characteristic chromatogram and total chromone content of agarwood produced by agar-wit from 11 place of origins of China and Southeast Asian countries were mainly evaluated, according to the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2015 edition). RESULTS: The morphological characteristics, TLC and characteristic chromatograms of 11 batches of agarwood produced by agar-wit were similar. Special structures such as included phloem, vessel and rays were observed in all samples. The extract and total chromone contents of agarwood produced by agar-wit from the six producing areas in China were higher than those from the five producing areas in Southeast Asia. Compared with other agarwood-inducing method, the sensory characteristics of the agarwood produced by agar-wit were relatively stable, and the average contents of the extract and total chromone were significantly higher, but the average content of agarotetrol was slightly lower than that of the agarwood produced by peripheral-inducing and iron-inducing. CONCLUSION: In terms of quality, the agar-wit is superior to the traditional agarwood-inducing method. It is not only applicable to the agarwood production of Aquilaria sinensis in China, but also applicable to the species of Aquilaria Lam. in Southeast Asian countries. The quality of agarwood produced by agar-wit is good in general, but the quality of the agarwood produced by A. sinensis is better than the species of Aquilaria Lam. in the Southeast Asian.