Aquilaria malaccensis

Aquilaria malaccensis
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Malvales
Family: Thymelaeaceae
Genus: Aquilaria
Species: A. malaccensis
Binomial name
Aquilaria malaccensis
Lamk.
Synonyms

A. agallocha,[1][2]
A. secundaria,[1][2]
A. malaccense',[2]
Agalochum malaccense[2]

Aquilaria malaccensis is a species of plant in the Thymelaeaceae family. It is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. It is threatened by habitat loss.[3]

The World List of Threatened Trees (Oldfield et al., 1998) listed Iran as one of the countries with a population of A. malaccensis, but an exploratory 2002 CITES review confirmed that Iran has no record of the species. As a result Iran is no longer considered as habitat for or producer of agarwood.[4]

Economics

Main article: Agarwood

Aquilaria malaccensis is the major source[5] of agarwood, a resinous heartwood, used for perfume and incense.[1] The resin is produced by the tree in response to infection by a parasitic ascomycetous mould, Phaeoacremonium parasitica,[6] a dematiaceous (dark-walled) fungus.

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Broad, S. (1995) "Agarwood harvesting in Vietnam" TRAFFIC Bulletin 15:96
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Anonymous (November 2003) "Annex 2: Review of Significant Trade: Aquilaria malaccensis" Significant trade in plants: Implementation of Resolution Conf. 12.8: Progress with the Implementation of Species Reviews (CITES PC14 Doc.9.2.2) Fourteenth meeting of the Plants Committee, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, Windhoek, Namibia
  3. Barden, Angela (2000) Heart of the Matter: Agarwood Use and Trade and CITES Implementation for Aquilaria malaccensis TRAFFIC International, Cambridge, ISBN 1-85850-177-6
  4. -PC14 -09-02-02-A2.pdf page 47
  5. Ng, L.T., Chang Y.S. and Kadir, A.A. (1997) "A review on agar (gaharu) producing Aquilaria species" Journal of Tropical Forest Products 2(2): pp. 272-285
  6. formerly Phialophora parasitica Crous, P. W. et al. (1996) "Phaeoacremonium gen. nov. associated with wilt and decline diseases of woody hosts and human infections." Mycologia 88(5): pp. 786–796

References