How to Test & Verify Oud
Most sellers online rely on opulent stock photography and mystical storytelling. We believe authentic luxury is grounded in repeatable, verifiable physics and chemistry.
1. Resin Formation in Aquilaria Heartwood
Healthy Aquilaria trees produce light, pale, odorless, buoyant wood with zero commercial value. Only when the tree is wounded by typhoons, insects, or lightning, and subsequently infected by phialophora parasitic fungi, does it mount an immune defense: secreting a dark, aromatic, dense oleoresin into its cellular vascular system. Over decades, this resin petrifies the heartwood, transforming it into agarwood.
2. The Archimedes Sink Test (Density)
Because uninfected wood has a specific gravity around 0.40–0.60 g/cm³, it floats high in water. When resin saturation crosses 85%, its specific gravity exceeds water (1.00 g/cm³), causing it to sink decisively.
The Sinking Grade Test
Healthy Aquilaria heartwood floats. Only agarwood saturated with dense defensive resin achieves true negative buoyancy in spring water.
3. Viscosity & Dilution Detection
The most common adulterant in commercial oud oils is Dipropylene Glycol (DPG), an odorless solvent used to stretch yields. DPG shears the natural intermolecular surface tension of oud.
The Viscosity & Tension Contrast
A pure, aged agarwood oil clings and loops unbroken under gravity. Diluted oils lack cohesive intermolecular tension, necking into erratic drops.
4. Reading a GC-MS Chromatogram
Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry separates an essential oil into hundreds of individual constituent peaks. Genuine wild Aquilaria is defined by specific bioactive sesquiterpenes and chromones:
Responsible for the creamy, woody, honey-smooth heart notes and slow evaporation rate.
The signature diagnostic marker of authentic agarwood; virtually impossible to synthesize economically.