The Degradation of Wood and Pulp by Wood-degrading Fungi

Degradations of pine, yellow poplar and sweet gum by two fungi, Pycnoporus cinnabarinus and Trichophyton rubrum LSK-27 were investigated. P. cinabarinus degraded pine block samples much faster than T rub rum LSK-27, whereas P. cinnabarinus and T rubrum LSK-27 degraded yellow poplar and sweet gum at almost the same rate. In an effort to get a better understanding of how fungi degrade lignin in wood, contents of various functional groups were analyzed. After three-months of degradation of pine flour by these fungi, the following changes were observed: an increase in condensed phenolic OH group and carboxylic acid group content, a decrease in the guaiacyl phenolic OH content, and little change of aliphatic OH group content. Further studies in the degradation of pine flour by P. cinnabarinus indicated that the increase in condensed phenolic OH group content and the decrease in guaiacyl phenolic OH group content occurred in the first month of the degradation. The changes of functional group contents in the degradation of unbleached softwood kraft pulp by P. cinnabarinus had the same trends as those in the degradation of pine flour. That is, structural alteration of lignin due to the kraft pulping process had little effect on how P. cinnabarinus degraded lignin.