The dilemma in Agarwood Grade

is “Our grade is the best grade”, “our grade is Grade A”, and “We have the best grade” which led to a series of questions from #agarwood buyers such as “Are you selling Grade A agarwood #essential oil ?”, or “What is your agarwood oil grade?”.

Our answer as usual is, that there is no established international standard practice for agarwood oil up-to-date and it really depends on your preference for our agarwood pure oil profile. But until today, there are many who still believe agarwood has a grade which is the fact many still don’t know that there is no established international standard for agarwood oil even by The International Fragrance Association #IFRA.

We cannot deny Agarwood has a grade, however, the misconception of the grade itself still lingering us. On the other hand, it’s all part of the marketing by companies who want to sell their products only. In our experience, we have sent our #agarwood powder to a distillation factory that claimed they can produce Grade A agarwood oil and they themselves have been selling Grade AAA agarwood oil with their own #distillation machine, but what saddened us is the oil is far beyond from our expectation and to make things worse even our perfumery expert said the same.

This led us to find out if is there actually any benchmark to claim whether or not your agarwood oil is a grade A quality and if there is what are the standards used in determining the oil quality?

To answer this, we have sent our agarwood oil for testing to bioraomatic research center – a biotechnology center focusing on R&D and commercialization of bio-based #aromatic products by the University Malaysia Pahang. They have worked with an academic institution, industrial partners, and agarwood players to identify key marker compounds that contribute to the unique aroma of agarwood which is classified mainly on #sesquiterpenes and #sesquiterpenoids (chen et al., 2012; Deep & Tajuddin, 2019; Ishihara & Tsuneya, 1993; Naef, 2010; Tajuddin et al., 2016).

This laboratory test is conducted using GCMS (Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry). The result is impressive because if were to judge by the agarwood oil grade benchmark set by UMP – our oil is of high quality and falls under the category of A+ grade with #sesquiterpenes and #sesquiterpenoids content of 83.87% and which makes us more confidence about agarwood oil and our distillation method is that it is free from any trace of contamination.

Though our agarwood pure oil is of high-quality grade, we still cannot discount that agarwood grading differs in different countries and each has a different #inoculation method. Still, it relies heavily on buyers’ perception and preference for agarwood oil.

Last but not least, make sure to check the source of the agarwood oil and its lab report. We have encountered agarwood oil that mixed with other synthetic fragrance oil to intensify the natural aroma for agarwood oil.

visit our website to know more about Agarwood: https://dadvanceagarwoodsolutions.com/

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This article is independently expressed by the writer himself and does not represent any claims for agarwood oil.

Adrieent Tan

Co-Founder & International Trade Director.