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Unraveling the natural durability of wood: revealing the impact of decay-influencing characteristics other than fungicidal components

  • Liselotte De Ligne ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Jan Van den Bulcke , Jan M. Baetens , Bernard De Baets , Gang Wang , Imke De Windt , Hans Beeckman and Joris Van Acker
Published/Copyright: August 18, 2020
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Holzforschung
From the journal Holzforschung Volume 75 Issue 4

Abstract

The effect of fungicidal components in wood has been known for ages, yet there is no method to assess the impact of such components on the durability of a wood species, as compared to other material characteristics that influence decay. In this paper, the importance of fungicidal effects on the natural durability of 10 wood species is assessed in relation to other decay-influencing factors with a new test, the so-called ‘paste test’. By comparing results from this test with the ‘mini-block test’, on both heartwood and leached sapwood, insight is gained into the significance of fungicidal components on the one hand and other material characteristics on the other hand. The durability of species such as Prunus avium was attributed mainly to fungicidal components. For species such as Pterocarpus soyauxii, durability seemed to be an effect of both fungicidal components and moisture-regulating components, while the latter seemed to be of main importance in regulating the decay of Aucoumea klaineana and Entandrophragma cylindricum. Wood-anatomical features, such as the parenchyma content (in case of brown rot fungi) and the vessel-fiber ratio, possibly affect degradation as well. This work shows that fungicidal components are not always of major importance for the durability of a wood species. The authors hereby emphasize the importance of moisture-regulating components and wood anatomy on the durability of wood.

Keywords: fungicidal components; heartwood; moisture-regulating components; natural durability; wood anatomy
Corresponding author: Liselotte De Ligne, Laboratory of Wood Technology (UGent-Woodlab), Ghent University (UGent), Coupure links 653, 9000, Ghent, Belgium; and Research Unit Knowledge-based Systems (KERMIT), Ghent University (UGent), Coupure links 653, 9000, Ghent, Belgium, E-mail:

Funding source: Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

Award Identifier / Grant number: 1S53417N

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the excellent work of Judith Stecklina, Johanna Kubitz and Stijn Willen and the support from Piet Dekeyser and Annelore Nackaerts. We would also like to thank the Royal Museum for Central Africa for supplying the sapwood specimens of those wood species for which sapwood is not readily commercially available.

  1. Author contribution: All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission.

  2. Researchfunding: This work was carried out with the financial support from the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO SB grant 1S53417N).

  3. Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding this article.

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Received: 2020-04-24
Accepted: 2020-07-01
Published Online: 2020-08-18
Published in Print: 2021-04-27

© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Original articles
  3. Heuristic study on the interaction between heat exchange and slow relaxation processes during wood moisture content changes
  4. Moisture content dependence of anisotropic vibrational properties of wood at quasi equilibrium: analytical review and multi-trajectories experiments
  5. Transient destabilisation in anisotropic vibrational properties of wood when changing humidity
  6. Rapid and nondestructive evaluation of hygroscopic behavior changes of thermally modified softwood and hardwood samples using near-infrared hyperspectral imaging (NIR-HSI)
  7. Density, hardness and strength properties of densified fir and aspen woods pretreated with water repellents
  8. Unraveling the natural durability of wood: revealing the impact of decay-influencing characteristics other than fungicidal components
  9. Complete NMR assignment and analysis of molecular structural changes of β–O–4 lignin oligomer model compounds in organic media with different water content
  10. Co-curing of epoxy resins with aminated lignins: insights into the role of lignin homo crosslinking during lignin amination on the elastic properties
  11. Facile fractionation of bamboo hydrolysate and characterization of isolated lignin and lignin-carbohydrate complexes
https://doi.org/10.1515/hf-2020-0109
Keywords for this article
fungicidal components; heartwood; moisture-regulating components; natural durability; wood anatomy

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Original articles
  3. Heuristic study on the interaction between heat exchange and slow relaxation processes during wood moisture content changes
  4. Moisture content dependence of anisotropic vibrational properties of wood at quasi equilibrium: analytical review and multi-trajectories experiments
  5. Transient destabilisation in anisotropic vibrational properties of wood when changing humidity
  6. Rapid and nondestructive evaluation of hygroscopic behavior changes of thermally modified softwood and hardwood samples using near-infrared hyperspectral imaging (NIR-HSI)
  7. Density, hardness and strength properties of densified fir and aspen woods pretreated with water repellents
  8. Unraveling the natural durability of wood: revealing the impact of decay-influencing characteristics other than fungicidal components
  9. Complete NMR assignment and analysis of molecular structural changes of β–O–4 lignin oligomer model compounds in organic media with different water content
  10. Co-curing of epoxy resins with aminated lignins: insights into the role of lignin homo crosslinking during lignin amination on the elastic properties
  11. Facile fractionation of bamboo hydrolysate and characterization of isolated lignin and lignin-carbohydrate complexes
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