Decay resistance of southern pine wood containing varying amounts of resin against Fomitopsis ostreiformis (Berk.) T. Hatt.

Resin production in wood tissues is a regular feature of pine wood species, including southern pine. High resin contents of southern pine wood may increase wood resistance against decay fungi. The current study investigated the effect of resin contents in southern pine wood on decay resistance by exposing non-extracted heartwood, mixed wood (sapwood + heartwood), and sapwood blocks with varying resin content to brown rot, Fomitopsis ostreiformis in a laboratory decay test. Matching blocks of each wood type were successively extracted in a Soxhlet using three solvents to determine resin content and were exposed to decay fungus in parallel. Results showed that mass losses in non-extracted heartwood and mixed wood depended on resin content levels, and very shallow or no mass losses were observed in blocks containing more than 31 % resin content. Sapwood experienced high mass losses, but the presence of resinous extractives significantly increased the decay resistance. All solvent-extracted blocks experienced high mass loss (53–55 %). Scanning electron microscopy showed that penetration of brown rot hyphae and cell damage depended on the resin contents of blocks. Most of the identified compounds through GC-MS belonged to oleoresins, among which monoterpene hydrocarbons, oxygenated monoterpenoids, and sesquiterpenes were more abundant in heartwood than sapwood.