A large evergreen tree about 21 m in height and 1.5-2.4 m in girth with somewhat straight and fluted stem; leaves linear-lanceolate to ovate-oblong, 5-9 cm long, silky glossy and faintly parallel nerved; flowers small, greenish on very slender pilose petioles in shortly peduncled umbels, on younger branchlets, perianth about 5 mm long, slightly hairy outside, stapens alternate the perianth, filaments red at the apex, ovary tawny-tomentose; fruits slightly compressed, yellowish tomentose capsules. Commercially used fragrant-resinous agar wood is formed in the interior of the old tree. The tree contains plenty of oleoresin and has irregular dark patches. The wood burns with a bright flame giving off a pleasant smell .
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The normal wood yields and essential oil which contains selinene, dihydroselinene, two unidentified sesquiterpene-hydrocarbons. agarol, a sesquiterpene alcohol, a hydroxy ketone. five isomeric decenes and rhombic as S-isopropyl-7-methyl- 5,5.5a, 6.7. 8-hexahydro-3H-naphtho. Agar wood, on distillation, yields an essential oil known as AGAR OIL.
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The wood is pungent, bittier, fragrant oleagenons; heating, alterative, tonic carminative; useful in “kapha” and “vata”, diseases of the ear and skin hiccough leucoderma, eye troubles (Ayurveda). The wood is fragrant with a bad taste; laxative, tonic, carminative, stomachache, diuretic, aphrodisiac; useful in chronic diarrhea, bad taste in the mouth, diseases of the liver and intestines, bronchitis, asthma, vomiting; strengthens the brain; helps to stabilize the fetus in utero (Yunani). The fragrant resinous substance is considered cordial. It has been prescribed in gout and rheumatism. It if a delightful perfume, serviceable in vertigo and palsy, and the powder is useful as a restrainer of the flaxes and vomiting. In decoction it is useful to allay thirst in fever. The wood is a preventive against fleas and lice, and in the form of a powder is rubbed into the skin and the clothes. In medicine, aloes wood is considered a stimulant and cordial in gout, rheumatism and paralysis, also as a stimulant astringent in diarrhea and vomiting. It is taken internally as a tonic in doses of ten to sixty grains.
In China, tonic, stimulant, carminative, and aphrodisiac properties are ascribed to the wood. In Cambodia, it is considered febrifuge and is administered in paludism. The wood is prescribed in the treatment of snake-bite and scorpion-sting (Charaka, Sushrutar; but it is not an antidote to either snake-venom (Mhaskar and Caius) or scolpion-venom (Caius and Mhaskar)
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