Around 2008, local agarwood hunters digged the kynam trees from the various jungles in china and transplanted them in their home. Years later, with these mother trees on hand, efforts to propagate the tree started and breakthrough in 2012 … and the grafting of kynam became a new industry since than..

Khoảng năm 2008, những người thợ săn trầm hương địa phương đã đào cây kynam từ nhiều khu rừng khác nhau ở Trung Quốc và cấy về nhà. Nhiều năm sau, với những cây mẹ này trong tay, nỗ lực nhân giống cây kynam bắt đầu và mang tính đột phá vào năm 2012… và việc ghép cây kynam đã trở thành một ngành công nghiệp mới kể từ đó ..

There are many varieties of kynam seedlings. How do you distinguish them? Look at the picture, you can tell it through the branches and leaves!

Cây kynam có rất nhiều loại, làm thế nào để phân biệt?Nhìn hình có thể nhận biết qua cành và lá!

01、香使1号 ~ 13号/Tương Thạch Số 1 ~ Số 13
02、正山1号 ~ 3号/Lapsang số 1 ~ số 3

01、掌勺子/Palm Spoon  … 

This superstar species was famous but crashed in 2017, it was found its oil formation was little, just forget about this species.

Loài siêu sao này nổi tiếng nhưng đã bị bỏ qua vào năm 2017, người ta phát hiện ra lượng dầu hình thành của nó rất ít, hãy quên loài này đi.

02、指天椒/Ớt chỉ thiên 

( This is obsolete species in China …

• Low in grafting survival rate
• Longer time in resin formation
• Resin formation is NOT solid enough, unable to turn into jewelry purpose )
• (Đây là loài đã lỗi thời ở Trung Quốc
• Tỷ lệ sống sót của mảnh ghép thấp
• Thời gian hình thành nhựa lâu hơn
• Sự hình thành nhựa KHÔNG đủ vững chắc, không thể biến thành mục đích trang sức)

03、葡萄藤/Cây nho

04、大叶婆/Đại Bá

05、紫棋  (Purple chess)/Cờ vua tím

06、红骨尖叶/Lá đầu xương đỏ

07、金勺/Chiếc thìa vàng

08、翠绿/Xanh ngọc lục bảo

09、金脉

10、绿油王/Vua dầu xanh

11、吊油王

12、子弹头  ( Bullet head )/Đầu đạn

13、金沙叶  ( Golden sand leave ) …/Lá cát vàng (Golden sand leaf)…

• softer branches
  
• very good resin formation
• degree of management … medium to hard
  
• cành mềm hơn
• hình thành nhựa rất tốt
• mức độ quản lý…trung bình đến khó

14、根脉大叶/Lá to có rễ và gân to

15、金丝油/Dầu lụa vàng

16、蓝宝石  ( Blue diamond )/Viên kim cương xanh

17、紫罗兰/Tím

18、乌身圆叶/Lá tròn thân đen

• Low production
• Best aroma among the Green kynam category
• Not popular for cultivation in China, due to its low production
• Sản lượng thấp
• Hương thơm ngon nhất trong hạng mục Green kynam
• Không được trồng phổ biến ở Trung Quốc do sản lượng ở Qinan thấp

19、透顶绿/Xanh hoàn toàn

20、油叶子  ( Oily leaf )/Lá dầu

• softer branches
• very good resin formation
• degree of management … medium to hard
• cành mềm hơn
• hình thành nhựa rất tốt
• mức độ quản lý…trung bình đến khó

21、祖母绿［依叶片特征改名：香匙］/Ngọc lục bảo [được đổi tên theo đặc điểm của lá: Thìa hương]

22、樱桃叶/Lá anh đào

23、香尖   ( Aroma tip)

24、金边子

25、 波浪子  ( Wavy boy)

26、铁勺/Thìa sắt

27、油勺/Thìa dầu

28、黑珍珠/Ngọc trai đen

29、沉香山棋楠壹号

30、金绿

31、金山1号

32、绿钻/Kim cương xanh

33、西瓜叶 ( water melon leaf )/Lá dưa hấu

34、金勺子/Chiếc thìa vàng

35、凹身  ( Dented body )

36、金结绿/Vàng kết hợp xanh

37、金钱香/Mùi thơm của tiền

38.   白露/Bạch Lộ

39.   流油王/Vua dầu mỏ

40.   沉水王/Vua chìm

41.   黄金叶 … Mainly for ornamental purpose, oil formation is little, not recommended for commercial planting./

Lá vàng… Chủ yếu để làm cảnh, ít tạo dầu, không khuyến khích trồng thương mại.

42.   汝湖  (Ruhu )

43.  唇印/Dấu môi

44.  舟祥

45.  翠曲

46.  脉象

47.  天曲/Thiên Khúc

48.  绿露/Sương xanh

49.  绿脉/Mạch xanh

50.  尖颚/Hàm

51.  浪韵/Lãng Vân

52.  糖结  ( Sugar Knot )/ Nốt đường 

53.  千里香

54.  鸭头绿/Đầu vịt xanh

55. 莺歌绿

56. 爆油王   ( Explosive Oil King )/Vua dầu nổ

57. 龍舟  ( Longzhou )/Thuyền Rồng (Long Châu)

58. 船叶  ( Boat leaves )/Lá thuyền

.

.

90. 白奇 (White Kynam)/ Bạch kỳ

.

.

99. 我的天  ( 尚未推出 / Yet to be launched ) /OMG

With a large number of grafting and overlapping naming, it is difficult to distinguish the varieties, since each mother tree’s owner will address the specific name which make them look complicated nothing more than marketing strategy. Cultivators are advised NOT to follow the winds through month to month in regards to the varieties.

Với số lượng ghép và đặt tên chồng chéo nhiều, rất khó để phân biệt giống, vì mỗi cây mẹ sẽ đặt tên cụ thể khiến chúng trông phức tạp chẳng khác gì chiến lược tiếp thị liên quan đến giống.

Do NOT ask me which varieties is the best .. Every saleman will tell u his products are the best among the best.

Comparisons of agarwood and kyara specimens.

Kynam, qinan (奇楠), kyara. The esteemed names of a very precious fragrant material on earth that almost no one seem to truly know in the modern world today.

Western Jin records of agarwood.

Historically, the Vietnamese called it calambac, in Sanskrit, it was recorded as kala-nam. The chinese words for kynam can be found with two variations of the word qi (奇), of which the former refers to unique, amazing, special. Nan (楠) refers to a certain wood type with three categorical species, where xiang nan or fragrant nan is one of them.

Several written records point to the existence of kyara/kynam like materials to be distinct from normal agarwood/jinkoh. In ancient texts from Western Jin dynasty (AD200), the words honeyed fragrance appear to refer to a soft pliable, honey-like material that was very fragrant.

Shadings of an old incense burner

In the old Nguyen dynasty imperial palace of Huế in central Vietnam, there are large incense burners with carvings of Vietnamese imperial tribute items, where one can find a carving of two types of trees, one known as “chenxiang” or agarwood tree, the other known as “qi-nan” or kynam tree tree.

Comparisons of agarwood and kynam via diagrams in the Chinese Compendium of Herbs.

18th Century pictorial versions of the Chinese Compendium of Herbs (本草纲目) by Japanese envoys in China had also depicted distinctions between an agarwood tree and a kynam tree.

Structurally different in the drawings, it is apparent that such trees did exist, and were specially classified, with the knowledge of being lost over the centuries.

So what exactly is kynam or kyara?… Stay tuned.

Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia are the three countries in the union of Indochinese, that border each other. The border areas between the three countries are mainly forests, where there is luxuriant vegetation of the evergreen tropical, including Aquilaria Crassna, the species that create the best type of Oud – Kynam.

Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia - the union of Indochina, where Aquilaria crassna grows vigorously in large quantities.

Vietnamese Oud, from more than a thousand years ago was exploited and put into use, before the neighbors Laos and Cambodia (López-Sampson (2020), “History of Use and Trade of Agarwood”. Econ Bot 72, 107–129, 2020).

In Vietnam, for thousands of years, Oud has always been considered the quintessential, sacred item of Mother Earth. A long time ago, Oud is a rare wood, often used for offering to kings and royals. However, not everyone knows the legend about this special treasure.

"Seeking for Oud" – an arduous journey full of blood and tears

Oud is hidden deep in dangerous forests & it takes decades or millenniums to appear. People who have their jobs seeking Oud may have to exchange their lives to find this worth-a-fortune wood. Among a thousand Aquilaria trees, there may be only one tree creating Oud; among a thousand Oud trees, there may be only one tree creating Kynam.

Kynam is the first-class Oud, divided into four types (Nguyễn Thị Hiền (2009): Nghiên cứu bổ sung kỹ thuật nhân giống vô tính để phục vụ công tác cải thiện giống theo hướng tinh dầu. Báo cáo chuyên đề thuộc đề tài “Nghiên cứu đánh giá thực trạng và phát triển bền vững cây Dó trầm Aquilaria spp.” Hà nội, 2009) with four different colors:

• White Kynam (Bạch Kỳ): ivory white, light gray, extremely rare, the most expensive.
• Green-blue Kynam (Thanh Kỳ): blue-gray, greenish color, very rare and expensive after the white one.
• Yellow-brown Kynam (Huỳnh Kỳ): brown-yellow, golden brown, rare and expensive after the green-blue.
• Black Kynam (Hắc Kỳ): indigo black, tar, precious and expensive after the yellow-brown.

The thousands of-year-old White Kynam is considered the most unique and extremely rare aroma. “White the best, Green-blue the second, Yellow-brown the third, Black the fourth.” is an ancient statement that proves that color is not the only factor determining Oud’s quality. (Yang-yang Liu, Zhi-hui Gao (2017), “A Review of Quality Assessment and Grading for Agarwood”, Chinese Herbal Medicines, Volume 9, Issue 1, 2017).

Oud quality is determined by a combination of the tree species, color, and scent. (Barden, A., N. A. Anak, T. Mulliken, and M. Song. 2000. Heart of the matter: agarwood use and trade in CITES implementation for Aquilaria malaccensis.)

In ancient times, Oud was only used as a Fengshui, offering items was tributed to kings or only the nobility can use it, or a Fengshui item to bring in luck & fortune to owners.

Wood grains (Wood-fibres). In genuine Kynam piece straight grains run roughly parallel, rarely see spiral grains, irregular grains and wavy grains that are available in normal agarwood (and in low grade Kynam), see Fig1.
Tip: You should use a digital microscope to magnify wood-fibres in Kynam piece and normal agarwood, see Fig2.

Fig1. Fig2.

2. Hardness. Kynam is classified as softwood whose side hardness is under 150 lbf (pounds-force). When newly dug up from the ground, Kynam is very soft, but over time it becomes harder and harder. In general Kynam is not as hard as normal agarwood.
3. Odoriferous properties. Kynam has delicious & charming odour. Kynam has its own special fragrance that does not resemble the smell of normal agarwood. It is difficult to describe Kynam odour in words. In classification of fragrances (using Fragrance wheel), Kynam odour belongs to the classes Dry woods, Mossy woods, Woods and Woody Oriental, see Fig3.
Tip: To wet Kynam piece by a small quantity of warm water, afterwards tightly wrap it by a nylon sheet (a banana ocrea is better) then you open it after about 10 minutes of exposure to the sun your will find a sweet-smelling aroma that you cannot see in normal agarwood.
Fig3

4. Specific gravity. Kynam (and normal agarwood) has specific gravity from 0.90 g/cm3 to 1.13 g/cm3, high grade Kynam often has specific gravity > 1 (sinking kynam). Rarely find sinking Kynam.
5. Smoke & taste. To chew a tiny splinter of Kynam piece you can find in your tongue tip several tastes like acrid, sweet, bitter and somewhat sour. But for normal agarwood, you can find bitter taste and somewhat acrid only.
When burning a small chip of Kynam piece you can see a straight smoke rising up that is slowly disappeared and accompanied by a captivating aroma. When burning a small chip of normal Agarwood you can see a spiral smoke that is swiftly disappeared and also accompanied by a scented fragrance.
In general, to recognize the taste and smell of smoke, you must reply on your sensory imagination and your own feeling.
6. Chemical composition. In 2006, Japanese scientists found in Kynam collected from Khanh Hoa province a new spirovetivane-type sesquiterpene (4R,5R,7R)-1(10)-Spirovetiven-11-ol-2-one. Until now, we did not find this sesquiterpene in our normal agarwood chips, so this sesquiterpene might be used as one of the important indications of quality evaluation of Kynam. An other important chemical found in Kynam is the sesquiterpenoid 2,6-ditert-butyl-4-methylphenol, see Fig4.

Tip: Kynam (and Agarwood) traders and collectors tend to prefer such Kynam piece (and Agarwood chip) that contains more oil glands ( i.e. VOC deposits), see Fig5.

7. Plant source and provenance. We think that Kynam is originated from the species Aquilaria crassna Pierre ex Lecomte of the family Thymelaeaceae. Kynam exists only in the virgin and deep forests of the provinces located in the Center of Vietnam: Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Phu Yen, Khanh Hoa, Gia Lai, Kontum. Please be noted that normal agarwood can be originated from 7 genera (Aquilaria Lam., Gyrinops Gaertn., Gonystylus Teijsm. & Binn., Wikstroemia Endl., Aetoxylon <Airy Shaw> Airy Shaw, Phaleria Jack, Enkleia Griff.) and about 30 main species (see attachment named “Distribution of 26 main Aquilaria species by 15 countries”). See an Aquilaria ancient tree in Tiên Cảnh, Tiên Phước, Quảng Nam (Fig6)

Dating back to the Western Jin dynasty, and re-published in Song Dynasty and Ming dynasty records before it faded away, the ancient Chinese appeared to classify aloeswood by the following terms 蜜香, 沉香, 鸡骨香, 黄熟香, 栈香, 青桂香, 马蹄香, 鸡舌香.

 There are serious flaws in this ancient Chinese classification despite it being very commonly used in sales pitch and marketing today. These classifications apply generally only to the external physical shapes and properties of the wood, with nothing much mentioned on the scent profile, localities, speciations, tastes, textures and other perceivable properties of aloeswood!!

So for interest sake, I’ve presented a translation here, sometimes the description of the original texts were too vague, and thus were mildly interpolated to modern equivalents to the very best means possible.