AYOUS WOOD: MAIN USES AND SELECTED PHYSICAL AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF AN INCREASINGLY INTERESTING MATERIAL ORIGINATING FROM CAMEROON

Triplochiton scleroxylon K. Schum, commonly named ayous in Cameroon, is a tree typical of secondary forests in subtropical areas mainly below 500 msl, characterized by an uneven distribution of annual rainfall and the presence of disturbance.This species is widely used in the origin area, and the interest of European markets for ayous wood has steadily increased in the last decades.Despite the interest, only a few studies explored the characterization of this wood for its Cameroonian provenience.This study was carried out to provide a general overview of the available information and to determine some selected physical and mechanical properties of ayous wood coming from the department of Boumba et Ngoko in South-east Cameroon.Physical and mechanical properties and colourimetric parameters of ayous wood were determined following the UNI EN and ISO standards to characterize this wood and to compare with the data from literature.Density, 393 kg/m 3 , resulted consistent with the data reported in the literature; the basic density was lower than those reported in the literature and the difference could be related to wood porosity; volumetric shrinkage was among the lower ones detected by other authors.Colourimetric parameters describing the undifferentiated creamy-yellow colour of the wood were L* 73.08, a* 7.39, b* 27.88.Mechanical properties were in the wide range of data reported by other authors; compression strength 36.6 MPa, static bending strength 61.1 MPa and Brinell hardness 12.2 N/mm 2 .These results extend our knowledge on the physical, colorimetric and mechanical properties of the ayous wood.These results can be