Answers

What is oud?

Short answer

Oud, also called agarwood, is the dark, resin-rich wood that forms inside Aquilaria and Gyrinops trees when the tree reacts to a wound or an infection. Its scent comes from that resin. Oud is sold as wood chips, burned as incense, and as oud oil, distilled from the wood.

Where the scent comes from

Healthy wood of these trees is pale and carries little scent. After injury or infection, the tree deposits an oleoresin in the wood, which turns dark and fragrant. 1

More than 250 compounds have been identified in agarwood, mostly sesquiterpenoids and 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromones. 1 3

A long history

Agarwood is described as a fragrant material in Sanskrit texts from around 1400 BCE, and was traded from Southeast Asia to the Middle East, India, China and Japan. 2

Oil or chips

Chips are pieces of the resinous wood, heated on charcoal or an electric burner. Oud oil is obtained by distilling the wood; one drop on the skin carries the scent for hours.

Woudya sells pure oud oil from Lombok and Kalimantan, Indonesia, in three grades (Origins, Heritage, Reserve), and oud chips from Kalimantan.

Origins, Grade A from Lombok, from €45 for 1 ml →

Other questions

Sources

  1. Kalra R., Kaushik N. (2017). A review of chemistry, quality and analysis of infected agarwood tree (Aquilaria sp.). Phytochemistry Reviews 16, 1045–1079. doi:10.1007/s11101-017-9518-0
  2. López-Sampson A., Page T. (2018). History of use and trade of agarwood. Economic Botany 72(1), 107–129. doi:10.1007/s12231-018-9408-4
  3. Naef R. (2011). The volatile and semi-volatile constituents of agarwood, the infected heartwood of Aquilaria species: a review. Flavour and Fragrance Journal 26(2), 73–87.

Updated 29 September 2026.