Effect of age on heartwood proportion, color, chemical composition, and biological resistance of teakwood

Teakwood from fast-growth plantations is commercialized at increasingly younger ages for economic reasons. However, wood features are influenced by the age of the tree. This study examined how age affects heartwood proportion, color parameters, chemical composition, and natural teakwood durability. Trees with 5, 10, 15, and 20 years of fast-growth at commercial plantations located in Mato Grosso, Brazil were evaluated. The base diameter of the trees ranged from 13.1 (5 years) to 28.3 cm (20 years), and the heartwood percentage increased from 16.3 to 60.0%, respectively. The color parameters in the CIELab system indicated that wood became darker and more saturated, and the predominance of yellow color decreased compared with red as age advanced. The total extractive content ranged between 7.4 (5 years) and 9.6% (15 years), without a clear trend of age affecting the extractive content. The extractives from five-year-old wood were mainly composed of tectoquinone (43.3%), phthalic acid (19.1%), and 1,3-indandione (9.2%), while those from 20-year-old wood were mainly composed of tectoquinone (60.7%), lapachol (13.8%), and phthalic acid (9.7%). Teakwood can be classified as resistant (5 years) to very resistant (20 years) after being submitted to an accelerated decay test.