Testing Antitermitic Properties of Brazilian Woods and Their Extracts
Keywords:
Termite control, <i>Calophyllum brasiliense</i>, <i>Carapa guianensis</i>, <i>Cedrela odorata</i>, <i>Diplotropis</i> spp, <i>Mezilaurus itauba</i>, <i>Ocotea cymbarum</i>, <i>Platymiscium ulei</i>, <i>Sweetia nitens</i>Abstract
A program on natural resistance of Brazilian woods to termites was initiated to obtain information valuable for more efficient utilization of various wood species of the Brazilian Amazon. Comparisons were made of the survival and feeding responses of Reticulitermes flavipes (Kollar) and Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki exposed to heartwood blocks and paper pads treated with extracts from eleven Brazilian woods. In no-choice block tests, no survival and little feeding occurred on Calophyllum brasiliense, Carapa guianensis, Cedrela odorata, Diplotropis spp., Mezilaurus itauba, Ocotea cymbarum, Platymiscium ulei, and Sweetia nitens. Micrandra siphonioides was the most favorable wood for both termite species. In choice block tests of all eleven woods, termites ignored most woods, eating primarily M. siphonioides and then small amounts of a few other woods.
Success in extracting antitermitic substances from milled heartwood of the eleven species varied with woods and solvents (successive cold extraction with hexane, acetone. 54:44:2 mixture of acetone-hexane-water, and 80% methanol). Termiticidal extracts were obtained from nine woods. In no-choice tests. R. flavipes did not survive the 8 week test period on seventeen extracts: C. formosanus did not survive on fourteen extracts. These extracts will be used for further study in research on potential termiticides from termite-resistant woods. Methods used in this study will be applied to tests in Brazil on various wood species against Brazilian termites.
References
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