Extractives of bark, heartwood, knots and wounded xylem provide defense for living trees. In Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) heartwood the most important groups of defensive extractives are stilbenes, which consist of pinosylvin and its etherified derivatives. These extractives also make the timber naturally durable against biodegradation caused by fungi and bacteria. Heartwood timber with high stilbene content could serve well in applications where decay resistance is needed. Due to high among-tree variation in stilbene concentration, grading of heartwood timber is needed. The target of our study is to develop and test a fast and nondestructive methodology (UV resonance Raman spectroscopy) to measure the stilbene concentration from solid wood substrate. The methodology could be applied, besides as a research tool, also in practice for example to evaluate the amount and quality of the natural heartwood resources, to grading of timber to produce higher value wood products, and in selecting trees for tree improvement.
Scots pine material originates from progeny tests of Metla (Finnish Forest Research Institute). The method of the chemical (GC-MS) analyses have been fine-tuned and performed in Metla’s Laboratory, and the optical (UVRRaman) analyses at the Aalto University.
Keywords: Heartwood, extractives, gas chromatography, UV resonance Raman spectroscopy, grading
Authors
Harju A.
Finnish Forest Research Institute, Punkaharju Unit, Punkaharju
Venäläinen M.
Finnish Forest Research Institute, Punkaharju Unit, Punkaharju
Partanen J.
Finnish Forest Research Institute, Punkaharju Unit, Punkaharju
Jääskeläinen A.-S.
Aalto University, Department of Forest Products Technology, Aalto
Hatakka R.
Aalto University, Department of Forest Products Technology, Aalto
Kivioja A.
Aalto University, Department of Forest Products Technology, Aalto
Tapanila T.
Finnish Forest Research Institute, Vantaa Unit, Vantaa
Tanner J.
Finnish Forest Research Institute, Vantaa Unit, Vantaa
Kilpeläinen P.
Finnish Forest Research Institute, Vantaa Unit, Vantaa
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