Antibacterial, antifungal and radical scavenging activities of knots of three softwood species have been investigated to evaluate the role of higher amounts of extractives present in knots. The results showed than Douglas fir presented higher scavenging activity than fir and spruce, which present more or less the same activities. Fir and spruce extracts presented higher antibacterial activities than Douglas fir extracts, while Douglas fir extracts presented higher antifungal growth activity than spruce and fir extracts. Structure activity relationships tends to indicate that higher radical scavenging and antifungal activities seems associated to higher relative quantity of flavonoids, while higher relative quantities of lignans seems associated to antibacterial activity.

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