by Yawar Saeed

How to Spot Fake Agarwood Chips: A Practical Guide to Authenticity, Quality and Adulteration

 

If you are new to agarwood, you may think identifying good oud wood is quite simple.

Look for dark wood.

Feel how heavy it is.

Put it in water and see if it sinks (For the extremely rare type - the sinking oud)

Then heat it and smell the aroma.

If it smells like oud, looks dark and feels heavy then it must be excellent agarwood.

Unfortunately, it is not that simple.

There is something much more important to understand:

Agarwood authentication and agarwood quality are two different questions.

A piece can be genuine agarwood but still be low or medium quality.

A piece can also be genuine agarwood that has been treated or altered to make it appear more valuable than it really is.

And this is where the subject becomes much more interesting.

The most difficult problem is not always someone selling ordinary wood and calling it agarwood.

Sometimes the wood really is agarwood.

The difficult question is:

Is this agarwood really as good as I am being told it is?

This guide will help you understand that difference.

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1. First, What Exactly Is “Real” Agarwood?

Agarwood is not simply a naturally dark wood.

It is resinous, aromatic wood produced mainly by trees of the genera Aquilaria and Gyrinops.

When these trees are wounded or otherwise stressed, they can produce defensive substances that accumulate in parts of the wood. Over time, these changes can create the dark, resin-rich and highly aromatic material that people value as agarwood or oud wood.

The amount and distribution of this resin can vary enormously.

One piece may contain only a small amount.

Another may contain much more.

One may be pale with a few resinous areas.

Another may be almost completely dark and dense with resin.

This is why two pieces can both be genuine agarwood while having completely different values and aromas.

Modern research also shows that agarwood quality is chemically complex. Researchers have found differences in resin-related compounds between samples of different density and quality, including differences in chromones and other constituents.

So when someone says:

“This is real agarwood.”

that answers only one question.

It does not automatically answer:

“How good is it?”

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2. Why Would Anyone Make Agarwood Look Better Than It Really Is?

This is one of the most important things for an agarwood buyer to understand.

Agarwood can have a very large difference in value depending on its perceived quality.

Imagine a trader has a batch of genuine agarwood with relatively low or medium resin content.

If it is sold honestly as ordinary agarwood, it may have a modest value.

But if someone can make that same material appear darker, heavier, more resinous or more like premium agarwood, its perceived value may increase dramatically.

That creates a powerful economic incentive.

And this is why adulteration is not always about making fake wood look like agarwood.

There is another, more subtle form of deception:

Making genuine but ordinary agarwood look like much better agarwood.

This distinction is extremely important.

Recent scientific research has actually investigated examples of this kind of problem.

In a 2024 study published in PLOS ONE, researchers created laboratory-made counterfeit agarwood by treating resin-free and ordinary agarwood with agarwood extracts and steaming them. After treatment, some of the samples became darker and their appearance and smell became similar to authentic agarwood. However, microscopic examination showed that the artificially added material did not reproduce the natural resin distribution found in authentic agarwood.

Another recent study of counterfeit Qi-nan agarwood examined several forms of adulteration, including impregnation with essential oils or extracts, oil pressing, polishing inferior material to resemble higher-quality material, and high-temperature treatment of low-grade agarwood.

This tells us something very important:

The problem is not always “fake wood.”

Sometimes the underlying wood is genuine.

The problem is that its quality is being made to appear higher than it actually is.

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3. The Most Difficult Deception May Be Genuine Agarwood

This may sound strange at first.

If someone gives you a piece of treated agarwood and you heat it, you may smell genuine oud.

Why?

Because the wood underneath may actually be genuine agarwood.

The problem may not be its identity.

The problem may be its grade and representation.

Think about the difference:

Genuine low-quality agarwood

Real agarwood with relatively little resin.

Genuine medium-quality agarwood

Real agarwood with more resin and stronger aromatic character.

Genuine high-quality agarwood

Real agarwood with substantially greater resin development and the characteristics associated with premium material.

Genuine but altered agarwood

Real agarwood that has been treated, enhanced, impregnated, polished, heated or otherwise altered in a way that may make it appear more valuable.

Non-agarwood material

Wood that is not agarwood but is being sold as agarwood.

These are very different situations.

And a buyer who knows only how to ask “Is this fake?” may miss the more important question:

“Is this genuine material being honestly represented?”

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4. Why the Aroma Alone Cannot Tell You Everything

This is where many buyers can become confused.

Suppose you heat a piece and it produces a beautiful oud aroma.

That is certainly interesting.

But it does not automatically mean the piece is premium agarwood.

Low-quality genuine agarwood can smell like oud.

Medium-quality genuine agarwood can smell like oud.

High-quality agarwood can smell like oud.

The difference may be in things such as:

• richness

• depth

• complexity

• smoothness

• development over time

• persistence

• balance

• the relationship between sweet, woody, resinous, spicy, earthy, animalic and other notes

Learning to recognize these differences is a sensory skill.

It is similar to wine.

Someone who has tasted hundreds of wines may notice differences that another person does not notice immediately.

The important lesson is:

Recognizing the smell of oud is not the same as recognizing the quality of oud.

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5. There Is Another Problem: Our Brain Does Not Always Smell in a Vacuum

This is a fascinating part of sensory science.

Imagine someone hands you a piece of wood and says:

“This is ordinary Assam agarwood.”

You smell it.

Now imagine the same piece is handed to you in a beautiful box and you are told:

“This is extremely rare, old, sinking-grade Assam oud worth thousands of dollars.”

You are still smelling the same wood.

But you are no longer approaching it with exactly the same expectation.

Research in wine tasting has demonstrated that information such as price can influence people's experience of taste.

In a famous 2008 experiment by Plassmann and colleagues, participants were given wines while being told they had different prices. Some of the wines were actually the same wine presented at different stated prices. Higher stated prices increased reported pleasantness and were also associated with changes in activity in a brain region involved in experienced pleasantness.

Later research has continued to show that information about price and context can influence how people experience and evaluate wine.

This does not mean that people are imagining everything they smell.

It means something more interesting:

What we are told about a product can influence how we experience that product.

This is sometimes described as a placebo-like or expectation effect, although the scientific literature is more careful about the exact terminology.

Now think about oud.

If a person is told:

“This is extremely rare.”

“This is sinking-grade.”

“This is from an old royal stock.”

“This is one of the best Assam ouds.”

before they smell it, those statements can become part of the sensory experience.

The buyer may then search for evidence that confirms what they were told.

A normal sweet note may suddenly be described as “deep.”

A moderate woody note may become “rich.”

A familiar resinous smell may be interpreted as “extremely complex.”

This is not necessarily dishonesty on the part of the buyer.

It is simply a reminder that human sensory judgment has limitations.

And that is why an informed buyer should try to separate:

What I am actually experiencing

from

What I have been told I should experience.

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6. A Question Worth Asking: What Happens Between Assam and the Final Market?

Here is an observation that anyone interested in Indian agarwood should think about.

Visit an agarwood-producing region such as Assam and look at material coming from trees and local supply chains.

You will see enormous variation.

A great deal of the material may contain some resin, but much of it will not have the extremely dark, dense, heavily resinous appearance associated with the highest grades.

Then go to a distant luxury market (like Dubai) and look at material being presented as premium Assam agarwood.

You may sometimes encounter a surprisingly large amount of material being presented as exceptionally high quality.

This creates an important question:

What happened to the material between the source and the final market?

This question does not prove that every premium-looking piece has been treated.

It does not prove that every seller is dishonest.

And it certainly does not mean that excellent Assam agarwood does not exist.

It simply means that the supply chain matters.

If the material changes dramatically in appearance, weight, aroma or perceived grade somewhere between the source and the customer, the buyer has every right to ask what happened during that journey.

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7. Start With Your Eyes

Now let us examine the wood itself.

Look carefully before doing anything else.

Ask:

• Is the colour natural-looking?

• Is the colour reasonably consistent with the grain?

• Do the dark areas follow natural wood structure?

• Are there lighter and darker areas?

• Does the surface look unusually glossy?

• Does the wood appear coated?

• Does every piece in a large batch look suspiciously identical?

• Does the outside look dramatically different from a freshly exposed interior?

Natural agarwood can be extremely irregular.

Do not expect every genuine piece to have the same pattern.

And do not make the opposite mistake of thinking:

“Dark means fake.”

It does not.

Research published in 2026 found a relationship between density and darker colour in the samples studied, and higher-density samples also tended to have greater resin-related characteristics. The study therefore provides scientific support for part of the traditional belief that darker, denser, sinking agarwood is often better.

But there is an important difference between saying:

“Darkness can be associated with greater resin development.”

and saying:

“Dark wood must be genuine premium agarwood.”

The first can be supported by evidence.

The second is not a safe conclusion.

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8. Look Beneath the Surface

The outside of a piece can sometimes tell only part of the story.

If you have an inexpensive piece that you are willing to cut, a freshly exposed surface can be useful.

Look at how the darker material continues into the wood.

Does the resinous character appear naturally distributed through the structure?

Or does the outside look dramatically different from the inside?

Again, this is not a magic test.

Real agarwood can have uneven resin distribution.

A piece can have resin concentrated in certain areas and very little in others.

But a suspiciously dark exterior combined with a very different interior deserves attention.

Notice the two images above of a same piece of agarwood I bought in India from a major oud retail seller. The top image of the oud piece gives the impression of dark resin worthy of a high quality oud but once broken into two pieces (second image), the inside part is pale white with very little resin distributed in the piece.

 

Recent microscopic research is particularly interesting here.

A 2024 PLOS ONE study examined the microscopic structure of authentic agarwood and artificially produced counterfeit samples. The researchers found a characteristic structure called resinous included phloem in authentic agarwood and found that simulated treatments could darken material without reproducing the same natural resin accumulation inside these structures.

This is an excellent example of why microscopic examination can sometimes tell us things that our eyes cannot.

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9. Can You Detect Artificial Treatment?

Sometimes you can find warning signs.

Possible signs include:

• an unusual surface coating

• artificial gloss

• colour that transfers

• excessive stickiness

• a strange oily feel

• an unexplained chemical smell

• suspiciously uniform darkening

• unusual weight for the apparent amount of wood

• an aroma that seems disconnected from the wood itself

An alcohol-soaked cotton swab can sometimes be used as a screening test for certain surface colourants.

If colour comes off easily, that is a reason to become suspicious.

But remember:

A positive result does not tell you exactly what was used.

And:

A negative result does not prove the wood is genuine and untreated.

It is simply one clue.

This principle will appear again and again in this article:

A clue is not a certificate.

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10. What Does Weight Really Tell You?

One of the oldest ways of judging agarwood is by weight.

This makes sense.

When more resinous material accumulates inside the wood, the density can increase.

The 2026 study mentioned earlier found a relationship between density, sinkability, colour and resin-related chemical characteristics in the samples it examined. Completely sinking samples in that study had densities above 1.0, while lower-density samples were more likely to float or partially sink.

So the traditional observation is not nonsense.

Dense, resin-rich agarwood really can be heavier.

But here is the important part:

Heavy does not automatically mean genuine premium agarwood.

Weight can be changed by things other than naturally accumulated resin.

And some genuine agarwood is not extremely heavy.

Therefore:

Heavy = interesting.

Heavy = potentially resin-rich.

Heavy = not proof of authenticity.

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11. What About the Famous Sinking Test?

You may have heard of “sinking grade” agarwood.

The basic idea is simple.

Put a piece of agarwood into water.

If it sinks, it is dense enough to sink.

Historically, sinking ability has been used as a quality indicator in agarwood trading and traditional grading systems.

And modern research gives this traditional practice some scientific support.

The 2026 study of 24 batches found that completely sinking samples had densities above 1.0 and generally showed greater resin content than non-sinking and partially sinking samples.

But the same research also showed something very important:

The density ranges of different sinking categories can overlap.

The authors also noted that factors such as water temperature, water purity, sample shape and trapped air can affect the result.

So:

Sinking is evidence about density. It is not a certificate of authenticity.

A genuine piece can float.

A genuine piece can partially sink.

A genuine high-quality piece can sink.

And a manipulated piece can potentially be made heavier.

Therefore:

Do not throw a piece into water and let the water make your buying decision for you.

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12. The Heat Test: What Happens When You Gently Heat Agarwood?

This is one of the most useful sensory examinations you can perform.

But it should be done correctly.

Agarwood is not simply ordinary firewood.

The objective is generally to gently heat the wood and allow the aromatic compounds to develop, rather than immediately turning the piece into charcoal.

Use a suitable incense heater or another controlled low-heat method.

Then observe.

Don't ask only:

“Does it smell like oud?”

Ask:

• How quickly does the aroma appear?

• Does it change as the temperature changes?

• Does the aroma develop in stages?

• Is it smooth or harsh?

• Does it have depth?

• Does it remain interesting after the first impression?

• Does it become sweeter, darker, woodier or more complex?

• What happens when the heat is increased?

• What remains after the strongest part of the aroma has passed?

This is where experienced oud users can sometimes notice differences that are difficult to describe in a simple checklist.

But even here:

The heat test is a sensory examination, not an absolute authentication test.

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13. Don't Be Fooled by Smoke, Bubbling or Aroma

You may see agarwood videos online where people show a piece bubbling dramatically and say:

“Look! This proves it is real.”

Be careful.

Resin can soften, melt, move and release aromatic vapours when heated.

A resin-rich piece may visibly bubble or behave in an interesting way.

But there is no universal rule saying:

“If it bubbles, it is genuine.”

Nor is there a rule saying:

“If it does not bubble, it is fake.”

The same applies to smoke.

Heavy smoke does not automatically mean fake.

Clean smoke does not automatically mean genuine.

A beautiful aroma does not automatically mean premium quality.

A harsh aroma does not automatically mean counterfeit.

Heating temperature, moisture, resin content, wood structure and the method of heating can all influence what you experience.

So don't search for one spectacular sign.

Instead, watch the whole behaviour of the wood.

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14. Genuine Agarwood Can Still Be Low Quality

This may be the most important lesson in the entire article.

Imagine someone proves that a piece is 100% genuine agarwood.

That does not automatically make it valuable.

It may contain relatively little resin.

It may have a weak aroma.

It may have been previously distilled.

It may have been heated many times.

It may simply be an ordinary grade of agarwood.

There is nothing wrong with genuine ordinary agarwood.

The problem begins when ordinary material is sold as exceptional material.

This is why:

Authenticity and quality must always be discussed separately.

A buyer should be able to ask two different questions:

Question 1:

Is this genuinely agarwood?

Question 2:

What quality of agarwood is it?

And there is a third question:

Question 3:

Has it been altered or treated in a way that affects how it should be valued?

Those three questions are not interchangeable.

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15. Wild, Cultivated, Natural and Induced Are Also Different Things

Another source of confusion is the word “natural.”

Agarwood can come from cultivated trees.

Agarwood formation can also be induced by human methods.

That does not automatically make the resulting material fake.

Likewise, wild agarwood is not automatically superior simply because it is wild.

The terms describe different things.

For example:

Wild describes where the tree grew.

Cultivated describes where the tree was grown.

Naturally formed describes how the resin formation occurred.

Induced describes a human-assisted method of initiating resin formation.

These categories should not be mixed together.

And a piece of wood cannot reliably tell you its entire history simply by looking at it.

If provenance matters to you, ask the seller for evidence rather than assuming that appearance can establish it.

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16. What Can Science Tell Us?

When the value of material is high enough, scientific analysis can become extremely useful.

Different methods can answer different questions.

Microscopy

Microscopy can examine the anatomical structure of the wood.

As discussed earlier, recent research has shown that microscopic examination of resinous structures can help distinguish authentic agarwood from certain artificially treated materials.

GC-MS

Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, or GC-MS, can help identify and compare volatile chemical compounds.

This can be very useful when comparing samples.

But GC-MS does not magically answer every question.

Other chemical analysis

Researchers also use techniques such as HPLC, NMR, metabolomics and other analytical approaches to study agarwood chemistry.

A 2016 study, for example, used metabolomics and DNA-based methods to distinguish agarwood from different Aquilaria species and showed that morphological identification alone can be prone to error.

DNA analysis

DNA methods can sometimes help with questions about species identity.

But species identification is not the same as determining grade.

Knowing that a piece came from a particular species does not automatically tell you how much valuable resin it contains.

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17. There Is One Important Problem With Laboratory Testing

Suppose you have a large bag containing 5 kilograms of agarwood.

You take one small piece from it.

That piece is sent to a laboratory.

The result is excellent.

Does that prove the entire 5-kilogram batch is excellent?

Not necessarily.

Agarwood can be highly heterogeneous.

One piece can contain much more resin than another.

One section of a piece can also differ from another section.

This is why sampling matters.

A laboratory result tells you about the material that was actually tested.

It does not automatically certify every other piece in a mixed or heterogeneous batch.

This is a simple idea, but it is extremely important when dealing with expensive agarwood.

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18. Even Experienced People Have Limits

There is something I have learned from the agarwood trade that I believe buyers should understand.

When material has been deliberately altered to imitate the characteristics we normally associate with better agarwood, identification can become extremely difficult.

This is especially true when the underlying wood is already genuine agarwood.

The aroma may genuinely smell like oud.

The wood may genuinely be Aquilaria.

The piece may genuinely contain resin.

The difficulty is deciding whether it is really as resin-rich and high-grade as it appears to be.

This is why even experience should be used carefully.

Experience is valuable.

But experience is not magic.

And when the material itself has been manipulated, the usual visual and sensory shortcuts can become less reliable.

The lesson is not:

“Experts cannot identify agarwood.”

The lesson is:

Even expertise has limits when the evidence itself has been manipulated.

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19. The Most Important Test May Be the Seller

After everything we have discussed, we arrive at something that cannot be put into a laboratory machine:

The person selling the material.

When buying valuable agarwood, ask questions.

Where did it come from?

What species is it believed to be?

Is it wild or cultivated?

How was the resin formation produced?

Is the material known to have been treated?

Has it previously been distilled?

Has it been heated or processed?

Is the whole batch from the same source?

Are there photographs of the original material?

Is there documentation?

Has the seller tested it?

What exactly was tested?

And perhaps the most important question:

What do you not know about this material?

A trustworthy seller should not need to have an answer for everything.

Sometimes the honest answer is:

“I cannot prove that.”

That is much better than inventing certainty.

A seller should not ask you to believe that a piece is exceptional simply because it is:

• very dark,

• very heavy,

• sinking,

• bubbling,

• strongly aromatic,

• or expensive.

Those characteristics may be useful clues.

But none should be allowed to carry the entire argument.

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20. A Simple Way to Examine Agarwood

You do not need to become a scientist before buying agarwood.

But you can become a much more careful buyer.

Use this simple sequence:

1. LOOK

Examine the colour, grain, resin distribution and surface.

2. EXAMINE

Look for unusual coatings, gloss, colour transfer, excessive uniformity or suspicious differences between surfaces.

3. FEEL

Notice the weight, density and texture.

4. ASK

Ask about origin, species, formation, treatment and history.

5. TEST CAREFULLY

Water and other simple tests can provide clues, but never treat them as final proof.

6. HEAT

Observe how the aroma develops rather than asking only whether it smells like oud.

7. COMPARE

If possible, compare it with material whose quality and history you already know.

8. VERIFY

For expensive material, consider professional examination or laboratory analysis.

9. CONSIDER THE SAMPLE

Remember that one tested piece does not necessarily represent an entire mixed batch.

10. ASSESS THE SELLER

Look at transparency, consistency, knowledge, documentation and willingness to admit uncertainty.

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21. The Three Questions Every Agarwood Buyer Should Learn to Ask

After everything we have discussed, I would reduce the entire subject to three questions:

Is it genuine?

Is this actually agarwood?

How good is it?

How much resin and aromatic character does it really possess?

Has it been altered?

Has something been done to make it appear, smell or behave like a higher grade?

Those three questions can save a buyer from a great deal of confusion.

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Conclusion: Learn to Examine the Wood — But Know What You Cannot Prove

Agarwood is fascinating precisely because it is not a simple material.

It can vary enormously from piece to piece.

Its colour can tell you something.

Its weight can tell you something.

Its ability to sink can tell you something.

Its aroma can tell you something.

Its microscopic structure can tell you something.

Its chemical composition can tell you something.

But none of these should be treated as a magic answer.

The greatest mistake a buyer can make is to find one characteristic they believe proves quality and then stop asking questions.

A dark piece is not automatically premium.

A heavy piece is not automatically genuine.

A sinking piece is not automatically untreated.

A bubbling piece is not automatically authentic.

A beautiful oud aroma is not automatically evidence of high quality.

And a laboratory report on one piece does not automatically certify an entire mixed batch.

There is another lesson that is perhaps even more important.

The most sophisticated problem may not be fake wood.

It may be real agarwood that has been made to look more valuable than it really is.

That is why a buyer should learn to separate authenticity from quality.

And that is why the seller matters.

When you are buying valuable agarwood, you are not only buying a piece of wood.

You are also buying the information that comes with it:

Where did it come from?

What happened to it?

What is known about it?

What has been done to it?

And what can actually be proved?

Use your eyes.

Use your hands.

Use your nose.

Heat the wood carefully.

Ask questions.

Use science when the value justifies it.

But above all, learn to recognize the limits of what any single test can tell you.

Because perhaps the most important question is not:

“Is this agarwood?”

It is:

“Is this agarwood really as good as I am being told it is?”

And once you learn to ask that question, you are no longer simply looking for fake oud.

You are learning how to think about agarwood.

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Research and references

1. Feng J, Liu Y, Liu P, Yang Y, Xie A, Wei J. (2024).
Resinous included phloem as a key indicator of authentic or fake agarwood. PLOS ONE, 19(12), e0312102.
The study examined authentic agarwood from multiple producing regions and laboratory-made counterfeit material, including material treated with agarwood extracts and steaming.

2. Yuan Y, Yang M, Zhao Y, Qiu Z. (2026).
Unraveling the science of “sinking and dark-colored” superior agarwood through density, color, and metabolomics. RSC Advances, 16, 15697–15708.
This study examined 24 batches of agarwood and investigated the relationships among density, sinkability, colour, resin-related characteristics and chemical composition.

3. Niu et al. (2016).
Multi-platform metabolomics and a genetic approach support the authentication of agarwood produced by Aquilaria crassna and Aquilaria malaccensis.
The researchers used metabolomics and DNA-based methods to distinguish agarwood materials and noted limitations of relying solely on morphology.

4. Plassmann H, O'Doherty J, Shiv B, Rangel A. (2008).
Marketing actions can modulate neural representations of experienced pleasantness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(3), 1050–1054.
The wine experiment showed that stated price could influence reported pleasantness and associated neural responses even when participants were tasting the wines under manipulated price information.

5. Schmidt L et al. (2017).
How context alters value: The brain's valuation and affective regulation system link price cues to experienced taste pleasantness. Scientific Reports, 7, 8098.
This later study further investigated how price information and expectations can influence the reported pleasantness of wine.

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Also in Oud Purity and Authenticity Guide