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At present deforestation in Sri Lanka increases rapidly and therefore, extreme attention should be given to finding different alternatives to prevent the destruction of forests for timber. Treated timber is one of the best solutions for increasing the durability. Boron treatment and Copper Chrome Boron (CCB) treatment methods are usually used to treat timber in Sri Lanka. Those two treatment methods have some critical issues such as the leaching of chemicals and risk to both human beings and the environment. Therefore, Alkaline Copper Quaternary (ACQ) treatment which is used pressure impregnation method has been introduced to overcome those issues. It is important to build timber classifications according to their treatability and application method. Hence, the present study was carried out to identify the relationship between ACQ treatability with anatomical characteristics of timber and classify timber according to their treatability via pressure impregnation method at A Wood Lanka Company at Kottawa, Sri Lanka. For this study, mostly used fourteen local and six imported timber species were selected and each sample was 30cmx10cmx5.5cm in size. The solution strength of ACQ was 4% and the treatability of ACQ was measured using chemical retention which was measured by the weight difference before and after the treatment. Chemical penetration depth was observed by using Chrome Azurol S. According to the results, timber species were classified into four classes "very difficult to treat", "moderately difficult to treat", "easy to treat" and "very easy to treat". The most effective timber species for ACQ treatment was Rubber. The relationship between treatability and total ray area was positive while the relationship between treatability and total vessel area was negative. But both showed weak relationships. Timber species were also categorized into four classes "fully penetrated", "partially penetrated, "penetrated up to 5mm" and "low penetrated" according to their penetration depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wood anatomy is considered to be a precise and rapid method in wood identification. Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of trees in the family of Myrtaceae. Due to the lack of appropriate systematic approaches, timber identification of Eucalyptus species is presently done based on visual observations and personnel skills. Therefore, the authenticity of Eucalyptus species is frequently questioned at the timber market. Identification of Eucalyptus species based on anatomical properties is recognized to be an imperative exercise as it could minimize possible misleads in the timber industry. In this research, nine Eucalyptus species grown in Sri Lanka namely: E. camaldulensis, E. citriodora, E. torelliana, E. pilularis, E. tereticornis, E. globulus, E. microcorys, E. Robusta and E. grandis were employed in identifying the variation of wood anatomical features with the idea of distinguishing the species. Anatomical features published by International Association of Wood Anatomists (IAWA) were used as the reference. Twelve wood sections representing each species (Tangential and Transverse sections of the wood) were used to identify the microscopic features. Micrometrics SE Premium 4 software was used to analyze the anatomical features of the timber. Based on the anatomical features of rays, vessels and parenchyma, a Dichotomous key was developed for the precise identification of Eucalyptus species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]