STUDY ON BASIC WOOD PROPERTIES OF CRITICALLY ENDANGERED SPECIES SYZYGIUM ALBUM

Abstract

Syzygium albumis a critically endangered species, and the wood basic properties haven’t been reported. Therefore, this paper analyzes the wood from the anatomical characteristics, physical properties, and secondary components.The results showed thatobserved S. albumwood of a 46-year-old tree is diffuse-porous to semi-diffuse-porous wood. The maximum vessel tangential diameter is 127.47μm, which is found at the beginning of the earlywood. Thewood rays are heteromorphic type I and II, and the multi-column part is mostly 3 cells wide. In physical properties, the air-dry density is classified as "heavy", whereas its air-dry and full-dry differential dry shrinkage are "small" and "medium", respectively. This indicates that the wood performs better when dried. The content of benzene-ethanol extract from S. albumwood is 2.10%. The benzene-ethanol extracts were analyzed by GC-MS, and the main components are 2,6,11,15-tetramethylhexadecane (3.29%), eicosamethyl cyclodecasiloxane (10.02%), octadecamethyl cyclononasiloxane (7.43%), and tetracosamethyl cyclododeca-siloxane (3.60%), etc.