Oud and Agarwood From Aroma Sublime: Standards and Nomenclature

• Terminology - "Oud" versus "agarwood" disambiguation:  For our purposes, here on the Aroma Sublime website, "Oud" will usually refer to the essential oil of agarwood, and "agarwood" to the raw wood itself. This website's terminology seeks to reflect the most common English usage for each form of the materials. Read more; Oud Across Language & Culture at the bottom of this page.

• Absolutely Wild: When we say wild, we mean wild! All our “wild” designated agarwood and oil is from genuine 100% naturally occurring wild forest agarwood trees with no human interventions prior to harvest. If we were to offer any other options, they would be clearly indicated as either “cultivated” (farmed) or “semi-wild” (agarwood growth influenced by human intervention in a natural forest setting). In 2025 Aroma Sublime has officially moved to a policy of only 100% wild Oud and agarwood products.

• Single-Origin Oud: One-tree wonders. We strongly prefer single-tree agarwood harvests and single-tree Oud oil distillations. This has both environmental and aesthetic benefits, capturing the unique essence of a single, fully mature, agarwood tree. When this single-tree preference is not possible we strongly favor combining wood from only a few fully mature trees​ from the same geography, of known provenance, ​supplied by trusted and experienced harvesters. ​(the only exception would be in the case of carefully planned blends or co-distillations which we always describe with precision.) More and more you will see us moving toward single-tree productions. It’s part of our commitment to sustainability and our joy in honoring the individual aromatic “soul” of each tree we harvest.

•​ Oud Aroma Descriptions: Beyond Words. We try to describe our Oud oils as accurately as possible using common vocabulary from a Western cultural perspective. There might also be some specialized technical or aromatic nomenclature as we seek also to educate and inform our customers. We hope to strike a balance; offering accessibility and straightforwardness while also providing some technical and specialized vocabulary when we think it is informative or necessary.  Our Oud descriptions are subjective and may vary slightly over time due to the effects of aging on Oud's aromatic profile, however, Oud oils will generally only improve with age, and the key aromatic features of a particular oil will generally be quite stable over time. We try to repeat the assessment process and update the detailed aromatic description for every Oud oil in our catalog at least once every 12 months. We pride ourselves on detailed accurate descriptions of our Oud oils, and we are happy to receive your constructive feedback on this topic. 

• Agarwood Aesthetics: Selecting wood for both beauty and aroma. We always do our best to send you beautiful-looking whole pieces of agarwood as best we can, regardless of the size of your order. You will never receive dust, small chips, or low-quality scraps; unless the product is described and shown as such in the listing. Already, our entire agarwood supply is always carefully chosen for both aroma and aesthetic appeal. Then we do our very best to fill your order with solid, attractive pieces of agarwood, as best we can, based on the number of grams you purchase of a particular variety. Purchasing at least 5 grams or more will give you an aesthetic advantage allowing us to select more attractive single pieces of agarwood just for you that will demonstrate clearly the natural form, color, and texture of the wood you have chosen. We also have many larger display-quality pieces available. We are happy to show you specific pieces on request.

• Oud Oil Ageing Policy: we don't release any Oud oil until it has been aged for at least one year. We believe that the aging process has an important transformative effect on Oud, which is essential to providing the highest quality products that our customers expect. We are generally able to precisely inform our customers of the month and year of distillation, and as well, we generally handle the aging process in-house, even if the product itself is outsourced.

• Lab Testing of Outsourced Oud oil: every single one of our partner-distillers is subjected to initial stringent lab testing of every product before we will pass any of their products on to our discerning customers. Using Gas Chromatography (GC) laboratory testing, as well as expert analysis of the results, we are effectively able to confirm purity and authenticity of every Oud oil we deliver.

Oud Across Language & Culture (in brief):  For our purposes, here on the Aroma Sublime website, "Oud" will usually refer to the essential oil of agarwood, and "agarwood" to the raw wood itself. This website's terminology seeks to reflect the most common English usage for each form of the materials. It should be noted that for many English speakers, "Oud" might also refer to the raw wood, particularly among connoisseurs.

In Arabic speaking countries, from where the word Oud originates, both agarwood in raw wood form, and its essential oil, and really anything else made with it, are commonly referred to as "Oud" (عود). To further differentiate between the oil and the wood in normal speech, they often add "dehn" (دهن), which means "oil" or "fat." So, you'd hear "Dehn al Oud" (دهن العود), literally "oil of oud" or "fat of the oud." This is the most common and precise way to refer to the essential oil. For the raw wood, they might say "Khashab al Oud" (خشب العود), meaning "wood of the oud" to make the differentiation more explicit.

The commonly used English word “agarwood” most likely originates from directly from the same word in Hindi, “agar” which is derived from the ancient Sanskrit aguru. (Agarwood having great cultural importance in India and in Hinduism.)

Other commonly used names worldwide include the Japanese 沈香 "Jinkō", which most commonly refers to raw agarwood or incense made from it, or in Chinese 沉香木 "Chénxiāng mù". The Japanese and Chinese names for agarwood also commonly leak out across other languages and cultures since they represent a very strong presence in the global agarwood culture and history. 

In Vietnamese, the raw wood is known as Trầm Hương, and the oil as Tinh Dầu Trầm. In Malay and Indonesian, the raw wood is called Gaharu, with the oil referred to as Minyak Gaharu.