An invention of Agarwood inducement created by a Vietnamese farmer Preface What is agarwood inducement? Association of ant-fungus mutualism About Ant-processed Inducer SECOIN Applied Biology Center 1
On 20 th April 2014, The Vietnam Intellectual Property Association granted to Mr. Truong thanh Khoan, a Vietnamese farmer, a trustworthy product certificate on his inducer applied to Aquilaria trees and on cultivated Agarwood formed by using this inducer. On 9 th June 2014, The National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam (under The Ministry of Science and Technology) gave Mr. Truong Thanh Khoan a patent number 12835 about Inducement method on Aquilaria trees for creating cultivated Agarwood Mobile: 01234699679 E-mail: dan.tr88@gmail.com Freface SECOIN Applied Biology Center 2
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Preface (continued) Unlike all inducers presently existing in Vietnam and around the world, Mr. Khoan s inducer contains quintessential juice produced by ants, hereinafter referred to as ant juice. In 2000, he discovered a species of ant (nesting in Aquilaria tree) that has the ability of biological stimulation for Agarwood formation, he started to study their living habits in order to domesticate them and to create approriate conditions for them, so that they can produce ant juice that is a key component of a special inducer hereinafter to be called as Ant-processed inducer (ApI). SECOIN Applied Biology Center 4
Preface (continued) Based on this ApI, Mr. Khoan has succeed in creating Agarwood in many thousands of Aquilaria trees and now he has became a rich peasant intellectual, a Vietnamese billionaire. His ApI inducer has been successfully applied to numerous locations in Vietnam and has been being promoting to foreign countries. SECOIN Applied Biology Center 5
Preface (continued) The purpose of this presentation is to try explaining scientific ground of this invention. If we can point out scientific foundation of this discover, we then can alter this unique creative achievement of pratical into an intellectual fortune, we also can assign to this experiential finding a professional language, therefore we can develop this product inside and outside of Vietnam. To do that, we need to know some basic knowledges as follows: What is Agarwood inducement? Association of ant-fungus mutualism SECOIN Applied Biology Center 6
What is agarwood inducement? Agarwood is diseased tissues located in the heartwood of several trees of some genera of the family Thymelaeaceae, the main source of Agarwood is the Aquilaria trees. In the genus Aquilaria there are 26 species that can produce Agarwood, these species are distributed by 15 countries (Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, India, China,...). Natural Agarwood is an aromatic resinous wood that is extremely rare and expensive. According to Robert A. Blanchette (1) and Pheeraphan Wijitphan (2), Agarwood is a pathological product of plant defense (or immune response) against outside attacks and impacts. On the left: Mr. Pheeraphan Wijitphan SECOIN Applied Biology Center 7
What is Agarwood inducement (continued) Examples of outside attacks and impacts : - Naturally pathological infection caused by fungi and other herbivores (insects, bacteria,..) - Mechanical injury impacted by human being or outer factors (war, storm,..) - Wounding & pathological infection created by artificial inducement - The floristic composition of vegetational cover (companion plants, insects,..) may possibly play a certain role in Agarwood formation. The Agarwood created by artificial inducement is called as Cultivated Agarwood or Induced Agarwood. Artificial inducement technique (or Agarwood inducement) consists of two actions: to wound the tree and to pour stimulative agent into this injury, this stimulative agent hereinafter referred to as inducer. Quantity and quality of cultivated agarwood surrounding the injury depends on the composition of inducer and the method of transfusing inducer into the tree. SECOIN Applied Biology Center 8
What is Agarwood inducement (continued) Nowadays, there are about several tens of inducers whose composition is kept secret. But in general the main components of inducer are: - Some fungi and microfungi, for example: Fusarium oxysporum Schlecht., Cladosporium spp, Cercosporella spp, Aspergillus Phoenicis (Corda) Thom & Currie, Cytosphaera Manganiferae Died, Melanotus flavolivens (Berk. & M.A. Curtis) Singer, Penicillium Citrinum Thom, Chaetonium globosum Kunze, Phaeoacremonium parasitica, in which Fusarium, Cladosporium and Cercosporella are three of 17 fungi that were found in 9 natural agarwood samples collected from the forest in Thailand (3), Fusarium and Chaetonium are two fungi found in natural agarwood pieces collected from India (4). - Some phytochemicals, namely: formic acid, methyl jasmonate, chitosan, sodium bisulfite,.. - Some bacteria (namely: Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus, ), yeast extracts, phytohormones, plant nutrient media and plant regulators SECOIN Applied Biology Center 9
Two main methods of transfusing inducer into Aquilaria tree: - Dispersed wounding by mechanical injury: to drill several tens (20-100) of hole into which the inducer is poured. In this case induced agarwood is formed around these injury sites. - Internal wounding: to transfuse inducer slowly and directly to xylem vessel of tree by using transfusion set, in this case only two or four holes are needed. If the internal wounding technique to be applied then induced agarwood is formed in whole tree along the xylem. What is Agarwood inducement (continued) SECOIN Applied Biology Center 10
What is Agarwood inducement (continued) Transpiration pull in tree Due to the force of transpiration pull, the water (and inducer contained in which) is pulled up the xylem vessel. SECOIN Applied Biology Center 11