Determination of the country of origin of true mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla King) wood in five Latin American countries using handheld NIR devices and multivariate data analysis

Abstract

Abstract A rapid and reliable identification of the country of origin of protected timbers is one of the measures for combating illegal logging. Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla King) trees are distributed from Mexico to Bolivia and the Brazilian Amazon and are included in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been proven to be a promising technique for calibration based and rapid species identification. There are only a few studies concerning the origin determination of mahogany wood. The present study is dedicated to trace back mahogany wood from Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru by means of two different handheld NIR spectrometers. The spectra were obtained directly from the wood samples, and soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA) and partial least squares for discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) models were developed for data evaluation. The SIMCA model was efficient and 67–100% and 70–98% of the origins were identified based on the spectral ranges from 1595 to 2396 nm and 950 to 1650 nm, respectively. The best results were obtained by the PLS-DA approach, in which the efficiency rates (EFR) vary from 90 to 100% with both spectrometers. In summary, both instruments were highly effective and are suitable for preliminary identification of the country of origin for mahogany wood.