Non-pressure preservation technique of five less durable timber species – Kadam (Anthocephalus cadamba), Shimul (Bombax ceiba), Pithalu (Trewia nudiflora), Am (Mangifera indica) and Boroi (Ziziphus jujube) of Bangladesh

IRG/WP 06-40322

G N M Ilias, A H Kabir, F Begum, M F Alam

Wood is a versatile renewable resource, which has been extensively used as a reliable construction material as well in furniture ever since the beginning of civilization. The Major disadvantage of wood is its susceptibility to biodeterioration by fungi, insects and bacteria. In tropical countries like Bangladesh, fungi is the most significant of these biodeterioration agents. Kadam (Anthocephalus cadamba), Shimul (Bombax ceiba), Pithalu (Trewia nudiflora), Am (Magnifera indica), and Boroi (Ziziphus jujube) are five, local and available, useful but less durable timber species of Bangladesh. The heartwood of these timber species is more or less resistant to decay and insects, but sapwood faces quick deterioration while exposed to moisture and wood enemies. On the other hand, wood can be protected from attacks from these enemies with the appropriate preservative treatment, by reducing or changing the form of its food toxic to wood enemies. So, appropriate preservative treatment is required to increase the durability of these timber species. The study of chemical preservative treatment of these five timber species has been undertaken using a mixture of Chromate-copper-boron (CCB) at 2:2:1 ratio with four different concentrations of 4, 6, 8 and 10% and different treatment durations of 8, 16 and 24 hours by non-pressure dipping method. It has been observed that Pithalu showed comparatively higher preservative retention than other four species, which indicates that Pithalu is a permeable and diffuse specie for dipping method. A preservative penetration test provided the information that air dried wood samples using 10% preservative concentration with 8 hour and 24 hours duration of dipping gave the best result for copper, while 10% preservative concentration with 24 hours duration used on green wood has shown the best result for boron penetration. The major physical properties of wood viz., moisture content, density and shrinkage have also been studied. Anthocephalus cadamba showed a lower density, while Ziziphus jujube had a higher density. Bombax ceiba and Trewia nudiflora are very close to Anthocephalus cadamba and Magnifera indica is very close to Ziziphus jujube with respect to the moisture content. Bombax ceiba, Trewia nudiflora and Magnifera indica showed all moderate positions with respect to density.


Keywords: non-pressure preservative treatment, anthocephalus cadamba, bombax ceiba, trewia nudiflora, magnifera indica, ziziphus jujube, chromate-copper-boron (CCB)

Conference: 06-06-18/22 Tromsoe, Norway


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