Incense Sandalwood is the top choice of ancient Chinese furniture

Mondo Culture Updated on 2024-02-07

Dalbergia is a tall tree of the genus Dalbergia in the legume family, commonly known as Huanghuali, and its other names include Dalbergia odorifera T., Latin name: Dalbergia odorifera Tchen。Huanghuali is famous for its precious wood, as one of the four famous trees in ancient China, and is also the main material for dark and precious hardwood furniture in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

As early as the Tang Dynasty, there was a record of Huanghuali in the "Collection of Materia Medica" in the Chen Collection, which was called palmetto. Because it is native to Hainan Province in China, it is also known as Hainan Huanghua Pear, which is an endemic plant of Hainan Province, mainly distributed in the central and southern regions of Hainan Province, and was selected as the provincial tree of Hainan Province in 2013 and was designated as a second-class protected plant in the "List of National Key Protected Wild Plants" promulgated in 2021. The preciousness of its wood is second only to red sandalwood, because the wood of yellow rosewood is extremely stable, regardless of cold and summer, it is not deformed, not cracked, not bent, has a certain toughness, and is suitable for all kinds of special-shaped furniture, such as Ming-style three-bent leg furniture, its bending degree is generally very large, only yellow rosewood can be made, and other woods are more difficult to do.

At present, it has been introduced and cultivated in Guangdong, Guangxi and Jianjian provinces in China. It grows very slowly, generally five years to flower and bear fruit, ten years before it begins to form the heartwood, the heartwood of Huanghuali is the best in the mahogany, has great economic and cultural value, its heartwood is reddish-brown to dark reddish-brown, the texture is delicate and beautiful, the board surface is usually vortex texture, and naturally forms a varied pattern, commonly known as "grimace pattern". Huanghuali wood has a strong spicy aroma and lasts for a long time, and is the best material for making high-grade mahogany furniture and handicrafts; And its wood is distilled.

After you can get sesame oil, it is a fixative for making high-grade spices, and the dry heartwood of the trunk and roots can be used medicinally, with analgesic, hemostasis, blood pressure and other effects, Chinese experts have overcome the infinite tissue culture and fast multiplication technology of Huanghuali, and found the promotion mechanism of ethylene and hydrogen peroxide in the formation of Huanghuali heartwood.

In addition, Dalbergia spp., a kind of wood that is easy to be passed off on the market is mainly the Rosewood imported from Africa at the beginning of this century, which belongs to the sub-rosewood category, because its color and texture are similar to the Dalbergia sativa, so it is called "African rosewood" in the market. The most significant difference between the two is: the unpleasant sour smell of the new cut mask of An's red sandalwood wood, and the rich spicy aroma of the scented sandalwood, which is also one of the reasons why it is favored by craftsmen in the Ming and Qing dynasties!

Well, that's all for today's topic of fragrant sandalwood, thank you**! See you next time!

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