Purple Dalbergia Odorifera

[Big Ry]

After obtaining a block of D. Odorifera from @Friedrich9, i thought I'd have a little fun in Steve Earis's wood ID Facebook group and see who would recognize it. Two did, despite no prep on my end. One of the guys lives in Singapore and shared with me a sample of a different type of D. Odorifera that produces a purple oil to fight off fungus. I'll just copy his message below and attach the photo he posted. But is anyone familiar with this? I'm assuming this is impossible to find in the US lol

Mengkhiang Goh:
"thks for sharing, hear of this Purple Oil Huang HuaLI? A Dalbergia odorifera that produce a resin to defence against fungus infection( according to research paper from a Chinese institute read online) it's heavy，my this sample has a density of 1.29 . When wipe with alcohol swap, you can lift out a purple oil out from the wood. Also there is a Vietnamese Dalbergia tonkinense, you can't tell the the difference from tree morphology, marcoscopic wood identification, chemical extract comparison with Dalbergia odorifera. In 201X, using DNA, D tonkinensis and D odorifera were clearly differentiated. There are research papers on them."

 

[daniscool]

I haven’t heard of it but it sounds cool.

 

[2feathers Creative Making]

Hadn't til now.

 

[Friedrich9]

that’s interesting. I have a block of wood I bought as Dalbergia tonkinensis, looks extremely similar if not identical to odoriferia. Only way to tell for sure would probably be to pay for expensive lab work that will destroy the sample in the process.

 

[Big Ry]

that’s interesting. I have a block of wood I bought as Dalbergia tonkinensis, looks extremely similar if not identical to odoriferia. Only way to tell for sure would probably be to pay for expensive lab work that will destroy the sample in the process.

I would imagine d. Tonkinensis is similarly scarce and priced accordingly

 

[Friedrich9]

Yeah, fairly trickery to track down.

 

[Big Ry]

Yeah, fairly trickery to track down.

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I feel like the end grain looks nothing like d. odorifera.

 

[Friedrich9]

I feel like the end grain looks nothing like d. odorifera.

@Big Ry in this picture I’d definitely agree. I was told this came from root stock, so maybe it grows differently. They are super similar in DNA to the point some argue they are the same species. I Guess odoriferia has some anti microbial properties Tonkinesis doesn’t have or vise versa. I read a research paper on it several years ago and another recently. But I’ve never taken the time to learn how all the plant DNA sequence stuff works to truly appreciate the info in the papers lol

 

[Big Ry]

@Big Ry in this picture I’d definitely agree. I was told this came from root stock, so maybe it grows differently. They are super similar in DNA to the point some argue they are the same species. I Guess odoriferia has some anti microbial properties Tonkinesis doesn’t have or vise versa. I read a research paper on it several years ago and another recently. But I’ve never taken the time to learn how all the plant DNA sequence stuff works to truly appreciate the info in the papers lol

I'll do some research on it. Just send me a specimen