Reading an Authoritative Agarwood Test Report: From Microstructure to Ethanol Extract

Report Header: Filter Out Fake Certificates First

Agarwood combines fragrance, wearability, and collectibility, and market enthusiasm stays high, yet oil-injected, dyed, and spliced fakes keep emerging. The naked eye only offers a preliminary check; a professional third-party test report is the hard evidence for verifying authenticity and grading quality. A legitimate report should clearly state the report number, client, sample name, receipt and testing dates, and the testing institution's information, with a dedicated inspection seal; reports lacking a seal, with blurry information, no clear execution standard, or unauthorized alteration are invalid.

Two core tests form the watershed between genuine and fake, and between quality tiers. First, microscopic structure: true agarwood has predominantly uni-seriate rays and abundant included phloem, forming a porous island-type structure; fakes may mimic oil lines but cannot replicate internal microstructure under the microscope, and oil-injected fakes have their vessels and phloem covered by foreign oil, exposed directly by microscopy. Second, the ethanol extract—it represents the ethanol-soluble aromatic resin content (sesquiterpenes, chromones, and other core aroma compounds); industry standards mandate an ethanol extract of ≥10.0% to qualify as genuine agarwood, with higher values indicating fuller oleoresin formation and stronger fragrance expression. Additionally, GC-MS and HPLC can lock in the "molecular fingerprint" of sesquiterpenes and chromones to further confirm natural origin.

For purchasing, sensory checks (smell, oil-line texture, weight) are only a first pass; high-simulation processed material is hard for laypeople to distinguish, so the safe approach is to require the merchant to support re-inspection by authoritative bodies such as CMA, and to verify the testing institution's qualifications and capacity for local destructive testing. Whether wild, sinking, or cultivated agarwood, as long as it has not undergone compression or oil injection and retains its natural oleoresin essence, it is a reliable, quality product.

This article is an industry observation and science-popularization compilation and does not constitute any trading or investment advice; please purchase agarwood through legal channels and insist on traceable, testable sources.