A study on the exploration and identification of bio-active components from some tropical hardwoods and the possibility of their use as natural preservatives

Abstract

The development of the new type of preservatives will be one of the most social demanded subject. One of the new type of preservatives which can be explorated from the tropical forest is wood extractives which has toxicity to the termite and fungal attack. It is well known that certain woods are naturally resistant to the termite and fungal attack. Based on the previous investigations, it is indicated that extract from naturally durable wood are containing substances which have antitermic and antifungal activities. Therefore a study on the exploration and identification of bio-active components from tropical hardwood and their use as a natural preservatives has been carried-out. The objectives of this research are to fractionate the extractives from some selected tropical hardwoods and to test the toxicity of crude extracts (soluble fractions) to the termite of Coptotermes curviganathus and to the fungal of Schizophyllum commune.