Properties and potential use for paper pulp of four less-known hardwoods originated from natural tropical rainforest in South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia.

Wood is biomass made from lignocellulose, the main raw material for pulp production, both species of hardwood and softwood. Utilization of as much wood as possible, including less-known wood species, is widely open because the availability of good quality wood for industry raw materials is increasingly limited. In general, all wood species can be used for paper pulp. But the selection of types of lignocellulosic material with specific properties, such as physical, anatomical and chemical, play an important role in efficiently using wood as raw materials for pulp and paper. This research was carried out to examine wood properties (specific gravity, fiber quality and cellulose content) of four less-known hardwoods from natural tropical rainforest in South Sulawesi province of Indonesia and assessed their potential use for paper pulp. Those hardwood species comprised of cempedak (Artocarpus integer Merr.), jabon merah (Anthocephalus macrophyllus Hav.), saling-saling (Artocarpus teysmanii Miq.) and simpur (Dillenia serrata Thunb.). The specific gravity determined by the weight of oven dried wood and volume of air dried wood where the wood volume be measured by water immersion method, the fiber dimensions measured through maceration preparations which was made using the Franklin procedure, while TAPPI method used for chemical analysis. In condition to paper pulp raw material, the specific gravity (0.40 – 0.69) is categorized as moderate, the fiber quality is classified as good (class II), and cellulose content (40.12% - 52.47%) is categorized as moderate to high for all those less-known hardwoods. All four less-known hardwoods studied potentially use for paper pulp raw materials. But simpur has the most potential due to long fiber and higher specific gravity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]