Cambodian Oud Explained: Aquilaria crassna vs Chinese Sinensis Oil for Wholesale Buyers

Cambodian oud is agarwood oil or wood traded under a Cambodian origin, and in practice the name almost always points to the species Aquilaria crassna. That tree grows naturally across mainland Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.^[1]

Why is resinous agarwood scarce? According to Liu et al. (2013), only about 10% of Aquilaria trees form agarwood naturally; the rest stay pale, almost scentless wood unless they are wounded and infected.^[7]

In the perfume trade, "Cambodian" has become a style label as much as a place name. Perfumers use it to describe a family of oils they associate with crassna wood and with certain distillation traditions in the region.

However, a style label and a verified origin are two different things. An oil sold as Cambodian oud may come from wood harvested in Cambodia, from crassna grown in a neighbouring country, or simply from an oil that smells the way a seller expects "Cambodian" to smell. The name alone tells you little.

The tree behind it, Aquilaria crassna, is assessed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, and according to CITES rules every Aquilaria species has needed Appendix II paperwork since 2004.

Why We Do Not Sell Cambodian Oud

We are growers, not traders of other people's wood. Our stock is plantation Aquilaria sinensis from our 100+ mu plantation in Guan Zhu Town, Dian Bai District, Maoming, plus wood from more than 100 contracted plantation farmers in the same region.

Because of that, we never label our oil as Cambodian, and we never blend it to imitate a Cambodian profile and sell it under that name. Our CITES export permits state the species we actually grow.

So why write about it at all? Because buyers compare. A perfumer who knows what Cambodian oud is and is not will judge our sinensis oil more fairly, and will spot misleading offers from anyone else more quickly.

Cambodian oud comes from Aquilaria crassna, a tree native to Indochina. Like every Aquilaria species, healthy crassna wood is pale and nearly scentless; oud forms only where the tree has been wounded and infected and has filled the damaged tissue with resin.^[1]

Historically, the wood came from wild trees in the forests of Cambodia and its neighbours. Collectors searched for trees that had formed resin naturally, and that pressure reduced wild stands heavily. As a result, the species is listed as threatened on international conservation assessments, and all Aquilaria species sit in CITES Appendix II.^[5]

Meanwhile, the trade did not stop. It moved, slowly, toward cultivated trees, and today the question "where does Cambodian oud come from?" rarely has a single answer.

Wild vs Plantation Crassna

Today a great deal of crassna is grown on plantations across mainland Southeast Asia, and growers induce resin in those trees on purpose, much as we do with sinensis in Guangdong. Plantation crassna is real crassna, but it is not the same material as old wild wood.

That distinction matters for pricing and for honesty. Wild-harvested wood usually commands far higher prices, while plantation material is more consistent and easier to document. Our comparison of wild and cultivated agarwood prices explains why the gap exists and why it is so wide.

Furthermore, plantation crassna is not always grown in Cambodia. Trees of the same species are cultivated in several countries. Therefore an oil can be genuine crassna and still not be Cambodian in any geographic sense.

Cambodian oud is generally described as sweeter and softer than many other oud styles. Perfumers commonly mention honeyed, fruity or jammy facets over a woody, resinous base, sometimes with a leathery edge. These are trade descriptions, not fixed rules.

We do not distil crassna, so we describe its scent from the market's general vocabulary rather than from our own production. Any single oil may sit far from that typical picture, depending on the wood and the still.

By contrast, the oils we produce from sinensis usually come across on our blotters as drier and woodier, with a cooler, slightly spicy or herbal side and less obvious sweetness. Again, that is a tendency we see on the grading table, not a promise for every batch. Our guide to what oud smells like sets out the full scent vocabulary we use.

Why Species Is Only Part of the Story

Species shapes the scent, but it does not decide it alone. Agarwood oil is a complex mix of sesquiterpenes and 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromones, and published analyses show wide variation in that mix across samples, species and origins.^[4]

In practice, at least five factors move the profile. They are the grade of the feedstock, whether the wood was wild or induced, how long resin had to form, whether the wood was soaked or fermented before distillation, and how long and how hot the still ran.

Consequently, two crassna oils can differ more from each other than one crassna oil differs from a sinensis oil. That is why we always tell buyers to judge an oil by its sample and documents, never by its country label.

How Cambodian Oud Develops on Skin

Traders usually describe Cambodian oud as opening sweet and fruity, often with a honeyed or jammy note. Over the next few hours it settles into a drier, woody and slightly leathery base that can last well into the next day.

How quickly that happens depends on the oil, its age and the wearer's skin, so we suggest judging any sample over a full day rather than in the first ten minutes. That habit also makes side-by-side tests with sinensis oil fairer.

The table shows tendencies, not a ranking. Neither species is better in absolute terms; they answer different briefs. A perfumer chasing a sweet, fruity oud heart may look toward crassna, while a perfumer who wants a dry, woody backbone may prefer sinensis.

Moreover, Chinese sinensis has its own long history. The species is the traditional source of agarwood in southern China, where the wood is known as chén xiāng and the Guangdong coast has grown it for centuries.^[2] It is not a substitute species; it is a distinct origin with its own character.

Indian and Assam oils deserve a short note because buyers often set them against Cambodian oud. They usually come from Aquilaria malaccensis, a species found from northeast India through to Southeast Asia.^[3] Their famous animalic depth is linked by many in the trade to soaking the wood before it goes into the still.

In short, the three common trade origins map loosely onto three species and three distilling cultures. Nevertheless, the borders blur, because plantation trees and wood now move between countries. For that reason, the species name on your documents is a firmer anchor than any regional nickname.

An origin claim is a legal statement, not just marketing copy. Whatever a price list calls an oil, the commercial invoice and the CITES documents must describe the goods truthfully, including the species and the country of origin.^[5]

• Species must match: a CITES export permit names the species. If a shipment of "Cambodian oud" travels on a permit for a different species or origin, the labels contradict each other, and that is a problem at customs.
• Country of origin must match: oil distilled in China from Chinese wood is Chinese in origin. Calling it Cambodian on an invoice misdescribes the goods.
• Importers carry risk too: in the EU, CITES rules are applied through Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97, and goods with inconsistent paperwork can be held or seized.^[6]
• Your own labels inherit the claim: if you sell an oil as Cambodian to your customers, you need paperwork that supports it.
• Annotation #14: some finished, retail-packaged products are exempt; check the current annotation text before you plan a shipment.

The rule is simple: an oil should carry its true species and origin. Ours is Aquilaria sinensis from China, and the CITES export permit says so. For the paperwork itself, see our step-by-step CITES agarwood permit guide.

Choose our sinensis oil when traceable origin, consistent supply and a dry, woody oud character matter more to you than a specifically Cambodian name. If your brief requires Cambodian oud by name, you need a crassna supplier, and we will tell you so.

There are four common reasons to choose sinensis. Each one is practical rather than a matter of taste.

• Documentation: one grower, one species, one origin. The grading note, invoice, GC-MS report and CITES permit all describe the same goods.
• Repeatability: we produce around 500 kg of oud oil per year from our own and contracted plantation wood, so repeat orders draw on the same supply base.
• Profile: a dry, woody oud often sits better in Western fine fragrance or in blends where a sweet oud would compete with the other notes.
• Budget: our list prices give perfumers a real-agarwood option at several cost levels, from CO₂ oil for formulation work to hydro-distilled oil for oud-forward compositions.

Equally, there are cases where sinensis is not the right answer. If your customers in the Gulf ask specifically for a Cambodian-style sweetness, or your product story is built around Cambodia, sinensis will not honestly fill that brief. We would rather lose the order than mislabel the oil.

Our Sinensis Price Points

Our hydro-distilled sinensis oud oil starts from $7.00/g with a 10 g MOQ. It is the closer choice for buyers who want a traditional distilled oud character.

For formulation and lighter applications, our supercritical CO₂ agarwood oil starts from $1.50/g, also with a 10 g MOQ. The extraction differences between the two are covered in our oud oil extraction explainer.

Some buyers prefer to judge the raw material first. Our sinensis oud wood chips start from $0.24/g (MOQ 100 g, grades D–AAA), and whole resinated agarwood logs start from $88 per piece. Grades follow our internal D, C, B, A, AAA scale, which is our own and not an ISO or CITES standard.