Effects of age and tree portion on chemical properties of Leucaena Leucocephala wood / Wan Mohd Nazri Wan Abd Rahman …[et al.]

The chemical components of wood strongly influence the
characteristics, properties and opportunities for use of wood as
composite material. The data on the chemical composition of wood
material is generally preferred and required for various processes
and applications in the wood industry. The main objective of the
study is to determine the basic chemical properties of Leucaena
leucocephala from eight year-old and sixteen year-old trees. This
study revealed that age shows no significant effect while tree portion
significantly affect the cold water and hot water solubles. Alkali
solubility also shows similar trend. Alcohol toluene soluble was
significantly affected by age and tree portion. Effect of tree portion
in ash content shows a significant difference between bottom and
both middle and top portions. However, effect of age shows no
significant difference with percentage of ash content. The lignin
content shows a positive correlation with increasing age but
correlated insignificantly with tree portion. The holocellulose content
decreases significantly with age and positive increases with tree
portion. Generally, eight year-old wood was found to be a suitable
raw material to manufacture wood composite.