Summary

Agarwood is a highly fragrant and very valuable resin produced by certain species of family Thymalaeaceae due to a self-defence mechanism. Most of the species of Aquilaria and a few species of Gyrinops, Aetoxylon and Gonystylus of the above family are capable of producing agarwood. The resin is highly sought after for religious, medical, ceremonial and domestic activities by Asian Buddhists and Moslems. In addition to that, a large demand is seen for agarwood in Southeast Asia, Middle East and United States as a perfumery agent. The resin-impregnated heartwood that is fragrant and can be extremely valuable depends on the oleoresin content of the wood.

Aquilaria species were commonly used by Southeast Asian countries to supply agarwood to the world market. However, recently G. walla locally known as Walla patta became famous in Sri Lanka due to smuggling efforts to extract agarwood from the wood. Walla patta is recorded only in the wet and intermediate zones of Sri Lanka and now it is under heavy threat from the poachers because they cut the trees grown in the wild and in homesteads looking or agarwood. However, if Walla patta is commercially grown, a high foreign income can be gained by producing agarwood so that it can be used as a poverty alleviation method in the country. 

In order for commercializing, the resin content and constituent variations of agarwood resins formed in Walla patta should be known. In addition to that, seed germination techniques, nursery techniques and especially artificial methods that can be used to enhance the resin formation must be known. Therefore the present research is conducted to identify the above contents and to develop plantation establishment using Walla patta and to form agarwood resins in efficient manner.

This research project has been started under the public-private partnership programme with NRC and Sadaharitha Plantations Limited targeting at poverty alleviation at the village level of the country especially in the wet zone area. The project duration is 36 months and started on 13th May 2013. The total estimated budget is Rs. 11.6 million.

The following objectives were included in the proposed research project.

1.Variation of agarwood resin content (w/w) and quality between Gyrinops walla (Walla patta) trees and between different geographical regions and to compare them with that of Aquilaria species.

2.Identification of the best artificial agarwood resin induction method by comparing resin content and quality.

3.Establishment of mathematical relationships between the resin content and quality with tree size.

4.Variation of Gyrinops walla seed germination with different treatments and seed storage time.

Objectives

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Major Equipment Facilitated by Grant

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