Picture 1. Firewood stock photo. Source : (www.istockphoto.com)
Wood in addition to having physical properties, wood also has chemical properties, basically, all need to be aware that in the wood itself there are several chemical reactions that can create strength within an element of the wood itself.
1. Ash
Ash is created from burning wood. So that the ash itself is a fairly organic substance contained in a wood which includes the minerals forming an ash itself as a residue from the combustion of cellulose and lignin. In the content of this substance there is rarely more than 1% by weight of wood.
2. Cellulose
Cellulose is the basic component that makes up the cell walls of plants. Do you know about glucose? Glucose is one of the main ingredients that can form cellulose. Because glucose molecules are long and large, they can form a chain that can be converted into cellulose.
3. Hemicellulose
Hemicellulose is a substance that is almost like cellulose, which is part of the polymer of a sugar. Hemicellulose functions as a wall-forming and as a reserve substance. The difference between hemicellulose and cellulose is that hemicellulose consists of various and many elements glucose, and 5 (C-5) and 6 (C-6) carbon monomer sugars such as galactose, arabinose, mannose, galluronic acid, glucoric acid, metallic acid. glucuronic acid, etc. However, if cellulose only consists of glucose and C6H12O6 only.
4. Lignin
Lignin is a unitary element that cannot be separated and forms a strong cell wall. The cell wall of lignin is a skeleton of the cellulose molecule. Lignin forms a branched framework that forms a three-dimensional structure made of a phenyl propanoid element that is interconnected by binding and highly variable.
5. Extractive Substance
Extractive substances found in wood include:
- Highly volatile oil
- Polysaccharide
- Alkaloids
- Terpenes
- Fatty acid
- Candle
- Alcohol
Aromatic components such as:
Acids, stilbene, flavonoids, tannins and quinones, aldehydes, alcohols, phenylpropane dimers.