Characterizing the Chemical Composition of Lipophilic Extracts from Acacia mearnsii Wood

Abstract

The chemical composition of Acacia mearnsii wood extract is described in this paper for the first time. This wood is cultivated in Brazil and has been used to complement the demand for hardwood in the pulp industry. In this study, we performed extractions with acetone (total extracts) and dichloromethane (lipophilic extracts responsible for the pitch formation), with the obtained percentages being 1.68 and 0.68%, respectively. The lipophilic extracts were derivatized and analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and gas chromatographymass spectrometry (GC-MS) before and after alkaline hydrolysis. The results showed that 57 compounds were detected in the lipophilic extracts and these are mainly constituted by fatty acids ca. 32.8 mg kg-1 and sterols 26.9 mg kg-1. These chemical classes have always been present in pitch deposits in the pulp industry. Therefore, these results may be used by pulp mills to establish strategies for pitch control and represent an important advance in the knowledge of A. mearnsii.