Yes, Chinese agarwood is real. The tree behind it, Aquilaria sinensis, is a recognized agarwood species native to southern China, and it has produced incense-grade oud for well over a thousand years. The doubt you have heard is rooted in a real market problem, but that problem is fakes and adulteration. It is not the species.
What Aquilaria sinensis actually is
Aquilaria sinensis is one of roughly twenty Aquilaria species that can form agarwood. When the tree is wounded, it floods the damaged wood with fragrant resin to defend itself. That resin-soaked heartwood is agarwood, also called oud. The Chinese species supplied the oud burned in Tang dynasty courts and listed in classical pharmacopoeias. It also sits on CITES Appendix II, so legitimate exports of the higher grades travel with permits.
Why people think Chinese oud is fake
There are two honest reasons. First, China processes more agarwood than anywhere else, so a large volume of low-grade and adulterated material moves through Chinese suppliers, including wood that has been injected or soaked to fake its resin content. Second, the internet is full of cheap "kynam" that has burned a lot of buyers. The reputation problem is genuine. The fix is to judge the wood, not the passport.
How to tell real agarwood from fake
- The sink test. High-resin agarwood (sinking grade) is denser than water and sinks. Most low-grade fakes float.
- The heat test. Real agarwood gives a sweet, layered scent when warmed gently, and the smoke stays pale. Treated wood smells sharp or plasticky and can throw off dark, oily smoke.
- The cut. Genuine resin runs through the grain as dark veins. Painted-on resin sits only on the surface.
- The paperwork. For higher grades, ask for the origin and CITES documentation.
Chinese, Cambodian, or Indian oud: what is the difference
Different species and regions smell different. None of them is "more real" than the others.
| Origin | Species | Scent profile |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese (Maoming) | A. sinensis | Clean, sweet, slightly milky, woody |
| Cambodian | A. crassna | Sweet, fruity, vanillic |
| Indian / Assam | A. malaccensis | Deep, animalic, barnyard |
Chinese A. sinensis tends to be the cleaner, sweeter, more approachable profile. That is part of why it works so well for people buying their first serious oud.
Where our agarwood comes from
Our wood is Aquilaria sinensis from Maoming in Guangdong, one of the historical homes of Chinese agarwood. We sell the raw material directly: sinking-grade nuggets, heating chips, and pure oud oil distilled from the same source. Buying from the origin is the simplest answer to the adulteration problem, because nobody in the middle is repackaging mystery wood.
FAQ
Is Aquilaria sinensis real agarwood?
Yes. It is a CITES-listed agarwood species and a historical source of oud.
Is Chinese oud lower quality than Cambodian?
Not inherently. Quality tracks resin content and grade, not country. Chinese A. sinensis usually smells cleaner and sweeter than many Southeast Asian profiles.
Why is some Chinese oud so cheap?
Because much of it is low-resin or adulterated. Price follows resin content, and sinking-grade material is never cheap.
How do I avoid fake oud?
Buy graded wood from a named origin, run the sink and heat tests, and ask for documentation on high-end pieces.
Want to judge it yourself? Start with our Maoming agarwood chips and put the sink and heat tests to work.