Police in Xishuangbanna have arrested three thieves for allegedly stealing rare and endangered fragrant rosewood (Dalbergia odorifera), which marked the case of timber theft in XTBG in mid October was solved.
According to a press release issued by Xishuangbanna police, all of the heartwood of the stolen branch was seized. The arrest is the result of a joint operation between Xishuangbanna, Laos, and Myanmar.
Fragrant rosewood (Dalbergia odorifera) have been widely employed not only as a kind of medicinal material in the pharmaceutical industry, but also famous for luxury furniture and crafts, owing to sweet fragrance, beautiful surface, high density, and economic value of the heartwood. The species has become endangered as a result of overexploitation. It’s sold at an unexpected high price in the market.
Seeing the high profit, the three thieves (YAN Kang, YAN Jiao, ZHAO Mingcai) attempted to make money by illegal logging the rare and endangered timber in XTBG. They cased the site for many times and made three attempts to steal the timber. The first two attempts were broken by guard patrolling. At a third attempt, they stole the timber in the evening of October 9 under a storm rain.
XTBG reported the case to the local police at the first moment. The police solved the case through a joint operation with Laos and Myanmar. “We thank for all the efforts made by the police from three countries” said staff of XTBG.
Since the species has become endangered as a result of overexploitation in the past years and artificially cultivated plants still cannot meet the short-term demand for medicine usage. Therefore the protection of wild resources of the plant is an urgent task, and the development of new methods for rapid induction of heartwood with great value is needed.
XTBG functions as a refuge for threatened plant species. Plants in the botanical garden are used for scientific research, horticultural display, and educational purposes only.

ABOUT
Dalbergia odorifera T. Chen is a medium-sized evergreen tree belonging to the Leguminosae family. It was originally distributed in Hainan, China and was gradually introduced and cultivated in Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Guangxi, and Yunnan, China. The heartwood of D. odorifera, named as “JiangXiang” in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), has been included in Chinese Pharmacopoeia for decades and is widely used for dissipating stasis, stopping bleeding, regulating “Qi”, and relieving pain. In Korea, the heartwood is also used for the treatment of blood stagnation syndrome, ischemia, swelling, necrosis and rheumatic pain. Volatile oil and flavonoids are the major medicinal components in D. odorifera. The former has a variety of pharmacological effects, including anticoagulant, anti-myocardial ischemia, anti-platelet, and antimicrobial activities, whereas the latter also exhibits many functions, including anti-inflammatory, anticoagulant, antitumor, vasodilative, antioxidant, and antihyperlipidemic activities.