"Oud was something that was disregarded for several years by perfumers, however now I think it is part of the palette," says Francis Kurkdjian, who is presently working on his 5th oud fragrance. "There is a sensuality in it that we utilized to have with animalic notes like ambergris." Among the Saudi and Gulf elite, the absolute best oud commands astronomical prices.
It is burned in a home to provide its spaces a deliciously purified feel; it is provided as a present to spouses, managers, and clients; it penetrates Arab life in such a way that no other scent does. It has no comparable in the Western world. Despite its popularity in the Middle East, oud comes mainly from Southeast Asia.
The procedure is called tylosis. The infected tree can continue this life-and-death struggle for a long time, sometimes years. In aquilaria the protective resin in the heartwood is where oud originates from, and professionals prize above all the extremely old trees, declaring that the resin has an unparalleled intricacy and richness of fragrance.
Some even state that this "real oud" has all but vanished. Supplementing the marketplace are modern plantations that "injury" trees synthetically in order to provoke tylosis, and tree poachers, who simply scrape off bark to let the wood end up being infected by the Ascomycota fungus. This yields a harvest of agarwood, though the oud produced can lack the intricacy of that made from ancient wild trees contaminated naturally.
Oud as a scent ingredient has a long history. The Chinese mentioned its being drawn out for incense in main Vietnam in the third century advertisement. By the late 16th century Vietnamese traders were exporting it to China and Japan, where it has actually been burned as incense for centuries. In click this , though, it ended up being valued as an oil and as an individual perfume.
"It's a bit like the asian scents from a century ago," he says. "Individuals are requesting oud, and they're given a fragrance named oud, however it's yet another illusion. It has absolutely nothing to do with genuine oud, much as 'asian' scents had absolutely nothing to do with the real Orient." In Dubai, the Oud capital of the world, the raw product is purchased and sold on a big scale.
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