Agarwood leaves are useful as nostrum of a cancer

Agarwood (Gyniops versteegii) is a plant that has many benefits, where the most commonly used part of the plant is the wood part that has been infected with fusarium sp mushroom agarwood gubal, in Indonesia the development of agarwood cultivation (gyrinops versteegii) has begun to develop, especially the development of agarwood nurseries in west Lombok and North Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara Province (NTB).

The development of agarwood not only focuses on the results of agarwood gubal, but there are other parts of the agarwood plant that can be utilized, namely in the agarwood leaf section because it can be used to treat many diseases, one of which is cancer.

Recently, development of herbal medicines that have a nostrum as natural antioxidants. 

Especially plants that began to be developed as a natural herbal medicine is agarwood leaf extract, in China the agarwood plant has been developed for the treatment of diseases such as cancer.

Cancer is a type of degenerative disease that occurs abnormal cell growth because it damages healthy body tissues. Cancer is one of a disease caused by the increase in free radicals in the body, cancer is caused of mutations in genes, unhealthy lifestyle habits are very susceptible to presence this disease, such as eating and drinking unhealthy, bad environmental conditions.

The body, which often consumes fried foods, and alcoholic beverages, will made the body to produce substances containing free radicals, disease not only through the food, the air breathe also greatly affects the condition of bodies If the air conditions in our environment are currently bad because of smoke and air pollution, the condition of the body will be susceptible to exposure to free radicals.

Accordingly, the body need antioxidant compounds that are useful for neutralizing free radicals in the body and would prevent damage caused by free radicals to normal cells, fats, and proteins.

Antioxidant compounds are compounds that can absorb free radicals in the body so that the body is able to prevent the presence of degenerative diseases such as cancer.

Agarwood leaves contain flavanoid compounds such as phenols that can absorb and neutralize free radicals in the body, utilizing agarwood leaf extract is very beneficial for the body because it contains antioxidants, but when extracting agarwood leaves is better on dried leaves because based on research published in the Thesis faculty of MIPA, Udayana University 2016 showed that high levels of flavonoids found in dried agarwood leaf water extract that is 14.98% or 14,980 mg GAE/100 mg.

Recently, the development of agarwood leaf extract was utilized as a business opportunity by making agarwood tea, making agarwood tea is also relatively easy, here's how to process agarwood leaves into herbal tea quoted from the Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research (2018):

1.Leaf Selection
Choose leaves that are healthy, green, do not have yellowish diseases (chlorosis) and necrosis (browning), and do not get pests that interfere, such as flea pests, caterpillars, insects and so on, after that pick agarwood leaves using the hands of the top 3 branches of each tree to be cut.

2.Leaf Drying
For 3 days the leaves are hardened at room temperature using a net or gauze wire, ideal drying when the weight of the agarwood leaves has been reduced by 70% from the previous weight.

3.Leaf Enumeration
Enumeration is done using a leaf grinder so that it gets the thickness of agarwood leaf pieces 1 - 2 mm.

4.Oxidation of Leaves
Oxidation of leaves is carried out in cabinets that have been given an air filter on the lid, this oxidation aims to strengthen the taste and also the color of the steepness produced.

5.Leaf Brewing
The leaves that have been oxidized are then boiled in boiling water for 1 minute at a temperature of 100oc, then filtered to take extracts of agarwood tea leaves that are delicious yellowish red with a unique taste and have a distinctive aroma of agarwood mixed with sugar depending on taste.

Welcome to enjoy the warm and delicious taste of agarwood tea because it is very useful as an antioxidant for the body, drinking agarwood leaf tea enough to consume it once a day on a regular basis.

Daftar Pustaka
Parwata, I M.O.A., 2015.Karakteristik dan Kapasitas Antioksidan Daun Gaharu (Gyrinops versteegii).Skripsi Fakultas MIPA, Universitas Udayana. :4.
Wangiyana, I G. A. S., Triandini, I G. A. A. H., Putradi, D., Wangiyana, W., 2018. Tannin Concentration of Gyrinops Tea from Leaves of Juvenile and Mature Agarwood Trees (Gyrinops versteegii Gilg (Domke)) with Different Processing Methods. Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research. 10 (10): 113 – 119.