Overview of Medicinal Properties and Toxicities of Agarwood Species
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37134/ejsmt.vol8.2.1.2021Keywords:
Agarwood, Aquilaria, Medicinal plants, Medicinal properties, ToxicityAbstract
Agarwood is a type of wood that originated from an Aquilaria tree. It is considered to be a highly valuable resin that formed inside the main stem. The tree belongs in the Thymelaeaceae family and there are numerous types of Aquilaria tree available. The common ones are Aquilaria malaccensis, Aquilaria sinensis, Aquilaria crassna, and Aquilaria subintegra due to its being favoured among planters. In order to avoid any wastage, planters used various parts of the Aquilaria tree such as the leaves, stem, bark and root to produce various types of agarwood products (i.e.oud oil, agarwood tea, and incense). Based on the extensive researches that had been carried out, it was discovered that the agarwood or Aquilaria tree possess various medicinal properties, such as anticancer, anti-inflammatory, analgesics, antidiabetic, antihistaminic, antianxiety, antibacterial, hepatoprotective, laxative, and improved neural activity. Although agarwood contained various medicinal properties, there are still insufficient information regarding its toxicity, resulted in the halt on the production of agarwood medicine. Therefore, this article summarized the various pharmacological properties of agarwood and its known toxicity, that will be used for future studies.
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