Taking Walla patta to the international communinty

Dr. Upul Subasinghe and his research team managed to take Walla patta (Gyrinops walla) to the international community through some scientific publications on the research findings. Up to now, two full papers were published in two reputed scientific journals and those can be viewed by the following links.

1. Title: "Agarwood type resin from Gyrinops walla: A new discovery"

http://journals.sjp.ac.lk/index.php/JTFE/article/view/594

2. Title "Agarwood resin production and resin quality of Gyrinops walla"

http://internationalscholarsjournals.org/journal/ijas/articles/agarwood-resin-production-and-resin-quality-of-gyrinops-walla-gaertn

In addition to that Dr. Subasinghe presented a paper on "Agarwood resin production of Gyrinops walla" at the International Scientific Symposium held in the University Putra Malaysia from 4 to 7 September 2013. The abstract of that presentation is given below.

Gyrinops walla, a member of the agarwood family Thymelaeaceae is recorded in the wet zone of Sri Lanka has not been previously studied to identify its ability of producing agarwood. Therefore the present study was the first ever to conduct to identify the production of agarwood resins in G. walla and its resin quality.

Three distinctive areas of the low country wet zone of Sri Lanka were selected for this study and 22 G. walla trees were used for sample collection. Since there were no artificial resin induction methods applied earlier, all selected trees had natural wounds occurred sometime before the sample collection due to natural injuries. The dark coloured tissues of the affected areas were collected without felling the trees and the resins were extracted by a solvent extraction method. The diameter and height of the sampled trees were measured and the geographical positions were also recorded. The extracted resins were further analysed by using gas chromatography technique to identify the different compounds and to compare those compounds with that of selected Aquilaria species.

Dr. Subasinghe presenting his research findings at the Malaysian Symposium

14,000 kg of smuggled Walla patta caught in Sri Lanka worth of US$ 1.6 Million - The value is a lie

In last may, all Sri Lanka media had a hit news in catching 14,000 kg of smuggled Walla patta scientifically known as Gyrinops walla by the Police and the Special Task Force. The price was given as US$ 1.6 million. According to the images showed in the electronic media, those tree samples appeared to be white, which means, there was no or very little agarwood formed in the trees. According to the experiments conducted by Dr. Upul Subasinghe and his team from 2010, about 95% wild-grown Walla patta trees do not produce Agarwood resins. Even if the resin is formed, it is due to natural reasons and therefore it does not evenly spread in the stem.

On the 31st of the same month, China Custom's Department has caught 8.145 kg of Agarwood formed in Aquilaria sinensis trees and the images shown below contain the real "Black Colour" Agarwood. According to the China Custom's sources, those Agarwood pieces are Class II in quality and even not Class I.

Therefore the person or persons valued the smuggled Sri Lankan Walla patta trees as US$ 1,143 per kilo has made another crime by lying to the public and showing the lack of knowledge in the trade. Further, this type of irresponsible behaviour leads to destroy the valuable Walla patta resource in Sri Lanka.

The Agarwood resins have to be artificially formed in the correct size of trees and in the next 6 to 12 month of time, Dr. Upul Subasinghe and his team will be able to come up with the best methods of forming resins in Walla patta under the research grant awarded to them worth about US$ 93,000 by the Government and the Private Sector.

Misleading figures about walla on news: Please be aware

Catching the smugglers of walla patta (Gyrinops walla) has become a frequent event in Sri Lanka and it has been given a huge publicity by both electronic and printed media. Even today, there was a news on Divaina (Island) paper about arresting a person carrying 28 kg of walla tree stems in Bibila area of the country. However, the facts given in most of such media articles are very much misleading and forcing the poor people to cut the trees for nothing.

Different media mentioned the price of walla kilogram with very lucrative prices. Today's news mentioned it as Rs. 80,000 (about USD 650). This figure can be true for the walla stems with full of Agarwood resins. For my two and half years research on all aspects of this species, I can guarantee that no walla trees can be found with full of resins in Sri Lanka. In the news, it may be a collection of many trees. However, due to the nature of resin formation, it has to be impossible to collect the "right trees" in large scale.

What valuable is the resin or the stem tissues with resin compounds and not just the walla trees. Please note that, walla trees do not naturally produce the resins in the stem. There are methods of enhancing the agarwood resin formation in walla trees and I am working on such methods at the moment. In addition, with the Ministry of Economic Development, the Sri Lanka government is stepping forward to promote growing this species in homegardens and as plantations under scientific guidelines for commercial use. Therefore I would like to make an appeal from the public to preserve the trees growing in the wild and homegardens and not to be mislead by the media.