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Antitermitic activities of wood essential oil and its constituents from Chamaecyparis formosensis

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Abstract

Chamaecyparis formosensis is a species indigenous to Taiwan. Its timber is renowned for excellent durability. The aim of this study was to investigate the antitermitic activities of wood essential oil of C. formosensis and its constituents. Results showed that wood essential oil of C. formosensis had powerful antitermitic activity, with LD50 values of 0.76 mg/g after 7 days of testing. Among the nine fractions of wood essential oil, Fraction 5 showed the strongest antitermitic activity, with LD50 value of <0.63 mg/g after 7 days of testing. Evidences obtained demonstrated that the antitermitic activity of Fraction 5 was mainly attributed to its constituents, including T-cadinol, T-muurolol, α-cadinol and 1-epi-cubenol. In addition, cadinane skeleton compounds with a hydroxyl group exhibited better antitermitic activities than those without hydroxyl groups. These results demonstrated that the effective constituents had the potential to become eco-friendly termite control agents, and characteristics of these chemical structures could serve as references for making synthetic pesticides.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Prof. Sen-Sung Cheng (The Experimental Forest, National Taiwan University) for supplying C. formosensis wood and Uni Pest Control Co., Ltd., for providing the termites. We thank Dr. Huan-You Lin (The Department of Forestry and Resource Conservation, National Taiwan University) for NMR spectral analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Forestry and Resource Conservation, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Section 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, 106, Taiwan

    Chia-Yun Hsu, Chun-Ya Lin & Shang-Tzen Chang

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  1. Chia-Yun Hsu
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  2. Chun-Ya Lin
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  3. Shang-Tzen Chang
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Correspondence to Shang-Tzen Chang.

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Hsu, CY., Lin, CY. & Chang, ST. Antitermitic activities of wood essential oil and its constituents from Chamaecyparis formosensis . Wood Sci Technol 50, 663–676 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00226-016-0811-7

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