How is the oud extracted

The oud tree

The oud tree is the tree from which the oud is extracted and the oud oil is extracted from it, as this tree is distinguished by its long life. The more the oud tree is large in age, the more this tree grows in the tropical regions, especially in Malaysia, Indonesia, India, etc., in addition to these countries there are some other countries that grow the oud tree. It extends from India to the east in Southeast Asia

There are many benefits to the oud tree, where the oud and oud are used mainly in hospitality in various parts of the Arab world, where the demand rises, especially in the Arab Gulf region,

Among the benefits of the oud tree, where the solid parts are used in natural art in Korea and Japan, where the oud wood is carved to be in the form of wonderful and beautiful wooden sculptures, and some pieces are converted into beautiful bracelets and designs.

Oud fat is used to make some kinds of perfumes and some cosmetics. Also, some good pieces are crushed to bring out the beautifully smelling incense for us.

Also, some types of ouds are included in the medical alcohol industry. The oud tree is a very desirable tree and therefore it has become few since in India the government imposed strict laws in the export of oud and oud fat, which made the Indian oud one of the most expensive and rarest types of oud, in addition to that it more pure

How to extract oud

Initially the oud is only extracted from trees whose lifespan is more than 60-100 years old. The older the tree, the higher the quality of the oud and its smell is more aromatic. Also, the height of the oud tree is very long, which ranges between 20 to 30 meters and more.

When the tree is between the ages of 10-20 years, "tree slicing" scratches are made, and the process of creating scratches in the tree is done in two ways, which are either through nature or by human intervention, which we will discuss in detail.

Natural scratches cause the formation of bacteria inside the tree trunk, which damages the parts of the tree trunk from the inside, which leads to the formation of rotting material in the place of the activity of the "worm" bacteria. Then a layer forms around the rotting material and the color is black. The lute and the oud fat,

Scratches may occur to the oud tree by uprooting the oud tree, and when the trees fall, they fall on the trees next to them, causing scratches.

As for the human being, the tree trunk is scratched by long nails that reach a specific depth in the tree, and after the tree is scratched by nails from the outside to the inside, bacteria are activated in the scratching area that work to destroy parts of the tree trunk forming the moldy material inside the trunk. Creating an oud layer around it.

When the oud tree reaches the age of 40 years and over, it is completely uprooted and the tree trunk is cut into pieces that can be carried and demobilized to the oud extract plant.

In the Oud extraction lab, the work is divided between machines and human labor. At this stage, the task of the machines is to cut the parts of the trunk of the large tree into medium-sized pieces so that no harm will be caused to the oud known as incense.

As for the workforce, it will have the most share, as these hands make a hard effort to extract the oud, and the work continues, and the task of extracting the oud among these workmen is according to experience. These hands receive the pieces produced by machines until the oud is extracted and the oud fat.

From here the manpower sorts and peeling the layers of the stem, where the layers of the stem can be divided into 4 layers from the outside to the inside of the stem. The outer shell, called the "bark," is discarded and thrown, and it can be used as a firewood to set fire.

After the bark layer comes another layer, which is called the white layer, which is also disposed of and used to ignite the fire as well.

In the third layer comes a semi-oxidizing layer that surrounds the oud layer and is the part that the oud fat is extracted from. 

The last layer is the buried treasure in which there is a layer of oud incense. This layer is completely oxidized and its shape is black as it is treated very carefully so as not to cause damage to the oud .

After all these steps, the oud, the oud, and the oud incense are exported to the consumers. Indeed, the oud tree is one of the natural things that exist in this universe and it is popular and consumers in all parts of the world, especially the Gulf countries.