A Novel Agarwood Resin Inducement Method Using Mycotoxins of Selected Fungal Species

Abstract Agarwood is a dark, fragrant, valuable resinous wood produced in Aquilaria and Gyrinops tree species in the family Thymelaeaceae to protect internal tissues from microbial infections. Aspergillus niger and Fusarium solani are well known to induce agarwood resin formation. This study demonstrated for the first time that agarwood resin formation can be induced by the mycotoxins of A. niger and F. solani. Different volumes of mycotoxins extracted from the ASP-U strain (USJCC-0059) of A. niger and the FUS-U strain (USJCC-0060) of F. solani were inoculated into A. crassna trees at 1 m intervals. The impacts of the inoculations were observed through resin content and constituent analysis at 7 months after inoculation. Resin production due to the mycotoxins of ASP-U and FUS-U was restricted to ±20 cm and ±60 cm, respectively, from the inoculation point. Color of the resinous agarwood varied from yellowish-brown 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 detected 27 constituents responsible for the characteristic aroma of agarwood resin. Among them, phenyl butanone, agarofuran, agarospirol, β-caryophyllene, alloaromadendrene oxide and (-)guaiene-1(10),11-diene-15-ol were found in all extracts. These are common in commercially available agarwood induced by fungal species. Hence, we demonstrated that the mycotoxins of specific fungal strains can be used for agarwood production. Therefore, chemically synthesized mycotoxins can be used at commercial-scale, eliminating the difficulties of maintaining live fungal cultures for agarwood production.