Isolation and Identification of Fungi Inhabiting Rubber-impregnated Wood, and Their Role of Quality Changing the Impregnated Wood

Knowledge of the types of fungi inhabiting wood, their growth conditions, and level of damage is needed to design an effective and efficient preservation process. Researchers have tried to identify fungi that play a role in attacking wood products (impregnated wood), including the type and the role of these fungi in changing the quality of processed wood. Isolation was completed on fungal-attacked wood. The first isolation resulted in approximately 26 isolates, which were then grouped into 8 groups based on the macroscopic appearance of the fungus. Molecular identification of the fungi produced types of Aspergillus tamarii, Penicillium citrinum, Trichoderma longibrachiatum, Trichoderma reesei, and Fusarium solani. Chemical analysis using the Chasson Datta method was performed on attacked and non-attacked wood. A decrease was found in cellulose content and an increase in lignin content for impregnated wood attacked by fungi. It was suspected that there were cellulose-attacking fungi that consumed cellulose, which caused a decrease in cellulose content. An increasing lignin content was thought to be caused by phenols, produced by the delignification process by fungi and additional phenols from the impregnation process. Fourier transform infrared results revealed the presence of carbohydrates, showing that the degradation of cellulose by fungi produced simple carbohydrates.