Diversity of decay resistance strategies of durable tropical woods species: Bocoa prouacencsis Aublet, Vouacapoua americana Aublet, Inga alba (Sw.) Wild

Abstract

International audienceThe study of decay resistance in wood is of interest for wood end-users but also for the global carbon balance since wood biodegradation is a key driver of forest ecosystem functioning through its impacts on carbon and nutrient cycling. We studied the density and wood extractive contents in order to understand decay resistance against soil microflora after 90 days exposure of sapwood and heartwood from three Neotropical wood species known for their decay resistance: Bocoa prouacensis, Vouacapoua americana, Inga alba. Decay resistance was correlated with density more than wood extractive content. The results highlighted different decay resistance strategies. In B. prouacensis, both sapwood and heartwood were highly resistant due to the high density and high content of antifungal wood extractives. In V. americana heartwood, decay resistance was due to the high synergistic-acting wood extractive content. Conversely, with the least dense wood species I. alba, we found that decay resistance was due to the antifungal wood extractives synthesized early in the sapwood. In conclusion, we showed that the three wood species with the same level of heartwood decay resistance performance had different decay resistance strategies according to the anatomic and defensive wood traits

The role of extractives in the natural durability of the heartwood of Dicorynia guianensis Amsh: new insights in antioxydant and antifungal properties

“…Durable heartwood had higher extractive content than moderate-durable woods. The higher percentage of extractives in the durable heartwood was expected, as extracts are active to preserve the internal tissue of the tree against interior attack (Amusant et al 2014). These results are supported by previous studies, which showed that very durable and durable tropical hardwood timbers have higher extractives content in the heartwood than moderate and non-durable woods (Lukumandaru 2013).…”

Wood Density Variations of Legume Trees in French Guiana along the Shade Tolerance Continuum: Heartwood Effects on Radial Patterns and Gradients

“…Given the agreement between the range of corrected inn WD and the estimation of corWD ctr observed in P. venosa, we hypothesize that the decrease in the HWD from the pith to the HW/SW boundary might be due to the decrease in total extractive content. Finally, SW also contains extra material such as nonstructural carbohydrates, gums, resins, silicate, or precursors of extractives [37,49,71,72] that may impact SWD. Although it is generally acknowledged that the concentration of extra materials is generally lower in SW than in HW [70], some species may have high extractive content in the SW [36,72].…”

A reverse chemical ecology approach to explore wood natural durability

“…2006.). To constitute the DEGRAD database, soil tests have been performed incubating wood blocks in French Guiana soils in 2010/2012 in controlled laboratory conditions as mentioned in Amusant et al (2014). Mass losses (%) have been measured after 6 incubation months.…”

“…Besides macro and micro-environmental factors, wood intrinsic properties trigger its microbial degradation (Amusant et al, 2014;Valette et al, 2018). Wood natural durability is due to the presence and organization of the recalcitrant polymers (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) and also of antimicrobial molecules (wood extracts) (Valette et al, 2017).…”

“…These molecules are not covalently linked to cell walls and could be then extracted using several solvents. A part of these wood extracts possesses antimicrobial and insecticidal activities explaining their involvement in the wood durability (Amusant et al, 2014;Rodrigues et al, 2011).…”