Factors affecting 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromones in artificial agarwood

Recently, "artificial agarwood" manufactured by the artificial treatment on cultivated agarwood trees is popular in agarwood-producing countries. Although there are various treatment methods, they are not standardized. Moreover, factors that may affect the generated chemical compounds have not been investigated. In this research, the effects of different treatment methods and individual differences on the quantities and types of 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromone in agarwood were investigated to experimentally produce artificial agarwood using Aquilaria sinensis. Each solvent-extracted agarwood sample was analyzed using Liquid Chromatography/Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and peaks were identified by comparing ten types of 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromone with reference standards. The composition and 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromone content of each agarwood sample were observed based on the type of chemical compound, and results indicated that when the treatment method was different, the accumulation pattern of the 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromones differed even when the number of resinification years was the same. Furthermore, the findings of this study showed that additional treatment on a single branch produced more 2-(2-phenylethyl)chromones. Moreover, market products composed of artificial agarwood pieces derived from different tree species and collected from different location were analyzed.