There's a fungus in my fragrance

Forget jasmine. Gardenia is so last century. And tuberose? Pfft. Boring. There's a new star ingredient in the world of perfume and it is exotic and strange enough to create a frisson in even the most jaded nose. Which is a good thing, because these days, as we wring every last drop out of our fragrance bottles (the better to preserve the household budget), it's only the truly surprising that seems of interest.

As far as I'm concerned, oud (pronounced ood), a by-product of fungal infestation of the south-east Asian Aquilaria tree, qualifies.

Oud is Arabic for wood, and describes Agarwood, a resinous extract high in volatile organic compounds that is created in the trunk and roots of the Aquilaria in response to parasitic infection. Not every tree is infected - only around seven per cent in a natural forest - which makes oud rare and expensive, costing nearly £3,000 for a 14g bottle of premier quality essential oil. Due to the indiscriminate harvesting of Agarwood in the past, Aquilaria malaccensis, the primary source, is now protected as an endangered species. Managed forests supply much of the oud used today.

Extraction involves sacrificing the whole tree to excavate small chunks of darkly coloured heartwood. Some of these are retained whole and burned as incense, while others are processed to extract the oil, which has a distinctive earthen aroma - think truffles mixed with rotten tree stumps, leaf mould and fresh manure.

Oud has been used in eastern civilisations since the third century for religious ceremonies as well as for cultural and medicinal purposes. But with the opening up of the United Arab Emirates and Dubai as travel destinations, oud has slowly been making its way west. It is adopted by perfume iconoclasts to set themselves in opposition to the more commercial fodder that has become the mainstay of the modern fragrance industry. The Organic Pharmacy's Margo Marrone, who is developing a collection of fragrances including one based on oud, told me: "I adore the smell of oud - it's just so rare."

Tom Ford was another early adopter, introducing Oud Wood among his 12 Private Blend fragrances launched in 2007. According to Roja Dove of Harrods' Haute Parfumerie, where the collection sells to perfume connoisseurs, "Tom Ford fragrances are certainly the most directional, and where he leads, others tend to follow."

These include fashion session hairstylist/perfumer Michael Boadi, of Boadicea the Victorious, who fell in love with the "hideously resiny" aroma of oud and developed a range of nine oud-based fragrances called The Agarwood Collection for fans he calls "perfumistas" - including two loyal Arab clients who were bulk-buying his scentsfor rituals where oud is used to infuse clothes with incense. Then there's the polymathic Daphne Guinness (designer, stylist, writer, filmmaker and, now, perfumer), who has included oud as a key element in her debut fragrance, Daphne. And perfumer Alessandro Gualtieri's latest launch for his company Nasomatto is Black Afgano, an inky liquid that is claimed to evoke a drug-induced state with smoky, resinous overtones that include oud oil.

There's a more commercial side to western fascination with oud: the desire to access the Middle Eastern market. Kilian Hennessey, for example, of the luxury perfume brand By Kilian, was preparing an Emirates debut through Harvey Nichols when he realised his scents were foreign to Middle Eastern tastes, and turned to - yes - oud.

He created a 100 per cent Pure Oud fragrance and gave a sample to the Qatari princess Kasia al-Thani, who liked it enough to launch it on her website, Savoir-faire.com. The only western element of Pure Oud is the application method, an atomiser spray; traditionally, oud is used in essential oil form, and dabbed in tiny amounts on to the skin.

Indeed, purists would eschew the new crop of scents altogether, and simply go to Al Qurashi, the Knightsbridge outpost of the 152-store Middle East business, for bakhoor: wood soaked in fragrant oud oil, that is burned like incense. You stand over a piece of smoking wood, imbuing your clothes and skin with the aroma; when the incense comes out of the neck of your garment, the ritual is complete, and the smell of oud will remain for days. When you consider the "cost per wear" argument that controls many of our current purchasing decisions, this may mean that, despite its price, oud is, in fact, the ultimate investment scent.

Anna-Marie Solowij is a contributing editor at VogueMore columns atwww.ft.com/annamariesolowij

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