What is Oud?

What is Oud?

Oud is a term popularly used to refer to the rare and precious aromatic products derived from oil and resin produced by wood of the Aquilaria species when it becomes infected by a fungus called Phialophora parasitica and the species are mainly found in South East Asia and surrounding regions.  

 

Is Oud a Middle Eastern Scent?

The popularity of the term Oud is a testament to the central importance of this resource in Arab and Islamic cultures and the word Oud itself simply means “from wood” or “wooden stick or log” in Arabic.  Despite Oud also forming an integral and important part of the cultures of South East Asia, for example in India where it is known as agar and in Japan where it is known as Jinko, its place in the Arab world has arguably made the dominant impact within the Western perfumery world.  

 

Oud in Western Perfumery

In contemporary Western perfumery, Oud also denotes a base note characterised by a woody leathery scent and it is common to find many prestigious Western perfume brands selling Oud perfumes that actually do not contain any real Oud.

 

How do you guarantee that your Oud oil is genuine and free from adulterants?  

Al Hashimi run two distilleries of our own and a lab where we craft many in-house Oud oils and attars.  We do also work exclusively with a very small set of distillers who we have known since 2016 and who have a proven track record in custom distilling the finest Oud oils in the world to our exacting specifications.  They operate on a basis of trust based on past experience and spot GCMS-testing.