AGARWOOD RESIN INDUCEMENT METHOD USING MYCOTOXIN-CONTAINING EXTRACTS OF SELECTED FUNGAL SPECIES IN <em>AQUILARIA</em> <em>CRASSNA</em>

Abstract

The current study for the first time showed that agarwood resin formation in Aquilaria species could be induced by the mycotoxin-containing aqueous extracts of certain fungi. Volumes of 25, 50, and 100 mL of mycotoxin-containing extracts from the ASP-U strain of Aspergillus niger and the FUS-U strain of Fusarium solani were inoculated into Aquilaria crassna trees at 1 m intervals with three replicates. Resin production due to the extracts of ASP-U and FUS-U strains was restricted to ± 20 cm and ± 60 cm, respectively from the inoculation point after seven months and the color of the resinous agarwood varied from yellowishbrown to black. The differences in resin content formation due to the different inoculant volumes of ASP-U and FUS-U were statistically significant and the average resin contents varied from 0.89%‒4.44% and 1.24%‒9.20%, respectively. GC-MS analysis of the resin extracts detected 27 constituents responsible for the characteristic aroma of agarwood resin. Among them were phenyl butanone, agarofuran, agarospirol, β-caryophyllene, alloaromadendrene oxide and (-) guaiene-1(10),11-diene-15-ol were found in all extracts. These compounds were common in commercially available agarwood induced by live fungal species. Hence, the study demonstrated that mycotoxin extracts from specific fungal strains could be used for agarwood production in Aquilaria.