WOOD RESEARCH Volume 71, Number 1, 2026
CARLOS ALBERTO URTIS-FLORES, MAURO MANUEL MARTÍNEZ-PACHECO, REBECA DEL CARMEN PEÑA-MONTES, and Crisanto Velázquez-Becerra

The Identification of Xylophagous Fungi and Evaluation of Mechanical Damage in Preserved Wood

In this study, seven xylophagous fungi (Trametes; Trichoderma A1; Trichoderma A2; Aspergillus; Paecilomyces; Coniochaeta; Gloeophyllum) were exposed to wood preserved with CCA salts, boric acid, and a polyphenolic extract (ExPol). The results showed a prevalence of xylophagous fungi that affects the use of wood. Changes in physical parameters such as mass are accompanied by changes in mechanical properties; variation in weight losses went from 12.69-20.42 %, 6.13-19.70 % and 6.38-23.68% for CCA, H3BO3 and ExPol respectively. In conclusion, variations in response to the preservatives were shown for each microorganism due the fact that metabolism is not the same because they use the substrate components or polymers in different ways for growth, being Expol the best option to inhibit Trametes, Trichoderma A2 and Aspergillus, there’s not much difference between CCA and H3BO3 for the control of the rest of the organisms but both are better alternative than ExPol to inhibit their growth.

WOOD RESEARCH Volume 65, Number 5, 2020
Yihang Zhou, Kai Wang, Xueqi Chen, and Dongbo Hu

Alterations in the anatomy and chemical structure of archaeological wood from a tomb of northern china due to different fungal rots

This paper aims to identify the decay types and investigate the chemical alterations in the three types of fungal decayed archaeological wood from Dongshan Han Tomb M6 (ca. 200-100 B.C.) in Taiyuan City, China. Microscopy, FT-IR, 13C NMR and XPS were adopted to reveal the features of the samples. The results show that from the microscopic and chemical perspectives, these samples are consistent with the characteristics of brown-rot, white-rot and soft-rot. However, all the samples show the accumulation of carboxylic acids or carboxylate salts from extensive oxidation of lignin, which were not observed in artificial fungal decayed wood. Moreover, different fungal decay types and pH values of the samples corresponding to the alternative forms of carboxylic acid or carboxylate salt are considered to be influenced by combined factors, such as the position in the tomb, groundwater level, moisture content, oxygen availability, etc. This study may provide a reference for the deterioration and conservation of fungal decayed wooden artifacts in the tomb of northern China where alkaline loess is the main soil type.

WOOD RESEARCH Volume 65, Number 4, 2020
Andreas Treu and Erik Larnøy

Short note: The impact of glue-lines on the protective effect of a low- pulsed electric field in wood

A wood protection method using electric fields to inhibit wood decay by brown rot fungi has been investigated in laboratory trials. Glued and non-glued wood samples were exposed to fungal attack for 6 weeks in Petri dishes and showed significantly reduced mass loss when connected to a low pulsed electric field (LPEF). The mass loss of LPEF-protected samples was in average lower than 10%, with a wood moisture content above 40%. The mass loss of untreated wood samples was above 30% in average. The glue line did not represent a barrier for the electric field in the test setup (a), where the glue line was applied on the transverse section of two glue-jointed wood sample halves. A test setup with two glue lines at the tangential side of three jointed wood samples, showed only slightly higher mass loss compared with wood samples consisting of two jointed halves. It is concluded that glue lines using the MUF glue mix used in this study do not impede the protective effect of LPEF.