Lakawood

Lakawood, or laka wood (Malay: kayu laka), is a reddish aromatic heartwood used as incense in China, India and South East Asia. It also had a number of other uses in the past, for example as a dye and for medicinal purposes. The name lakawood has been used to refer to the wood of different plants, such as Acronychia pedunculata, A. Laurifolia, and in particular, Dalbergia parviflora found in South East Asia. Historically it was one of the most commonly-traded commodities of South East Asia in the trade between China and South East Asia from the Song dynasty onwards, possibly earlier.

The lakawood of Dalbergia parviflora is a product of the Malay peninsula and archipelago, and its native name in Malay is kayu laka (literally "laka wood"), from which the words cayolaque and lakawood are derived. In old Javanese literature, the word "laka" was also used to denote a shade of red on cloth, and the word manglaka meant "processor of laka-wood dye", although the tree from which the dye was derived from is Emblica officinalis.

In Chinese, lakawood may be called jiangzhenxiang (降真香) or zitengxiang (紫藤香). The two names referred to different types of fragrant wood in the early period, but by the early 13th century, the two names were regarded as referring to the same product. The older term ziteng (紫藤, literally "purple vine") has been identified as a plant grown in Southern China Acronychia pedunculata and A. Laurifolia, but is distinct from wisteria which also has the same Chinese name. The fragrance and appearance of the heartwood and root wood from Dalbergia parviflora of South East Asia, known to have been imported into China in the 10th century, is similar to the earlier Chinese incense wood, it therefore became a substitute for the Chinese product. Its fragrance was particularly appreciated by Taoists, and it therefore gained the name jiangzhenxiang meaning "the incense that summons the Perfected Ones to descend among us". Historical records however used two similar terms, jiangzhenxiang and jiangzhen, which may have been two different products. Lakawood was also once referred to as Tanarius major in some English sources.

...
Wikipedia