IV therapy has become a recent trend and is often associated with curing illnesses but it can now be used to create the world’s most expensive wood.
Photos recently appeared on social media showing large IV drips filled with a strange-looking liquid hanging from trees. Most weren’t sure what the images were of, debating if they were part of an art installation designed to raise awareness about deforestation or if was actually a treatment method designed to save the trees from parasites. Others went as far as to believe the images were some type of vandalism, with urine filling the bags.
All of these theories turned out to be incorrect. In reality, the liquid inside the bags was not a treatment but a poison designed to activate the tree’s self-defense mechanism to create the world’s most expensive wood.
Kynam or “kyara” is an extremely rare type of agarwood (oud) often used in the perfume and incense industries for its complex and very aromatic scent. Naturally, the heartwood of the aquilaria tree is relatively odorless but in certain circumstances, the tree produces a type of dark resin that creates precious agarwood, which is where the IV bags come into play.
Humans have known for hundreds of years that aquilaria can ony produce agarwood in response to a type of stress. It was only recently that was identified as ‘phialophora parasitic,’ or a type of mold. When artificially infecting aquilaria trees with this parasite, it stimulates the production of the precious resin.
Now, agarwood plantations have sprung up all over Asia, including farms in Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam. Although plantation agarwood isn’t as pricey as wild agarwood, it is still considered one of the most expensive materials in the world.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/218772006840067/permalink/505740171476581/