Characterization of mahogany leaf litter (Swietenia macrophylla King) as a raw material of decay resistance biocomposite

Abstract

Leaf litter is an organic waste that can be degraded biologically in nature. Based on the previous research, mahogany trees in Universitas Negeri Semarang (UNNES) campus produce about 10 ton ha-1 leaf litter in campus forest area and 2.5 ton ha-1 along campus street within three-month-period. By this abundant amount of leaf litter, it is quite difficult to overcome the problem of litter management. Therefore, the idea of leaf litter utilization as a raw material of biocomposite is promising to reduce the use of wood as an important commodity of human needs. However, the characterization of leaf litter feasibility for biocomposite production has not been done. This research aims to characterize the physicochemical properties of mahogany leaf litter. Leaf litter was oven-dried for 5 h at 50 °C and then was ground using a mechanical blender to obtain leaf litter powder. Then, the proximate (moisture, proteins, fat and carbohydrate content) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis were performed. The results show that the content of crude ash is 9.90 ± 0.65%; crude protein content 24.83 ± 0.79%; crude fat content 11.37 ± 1.05%; volatile compound 65.14 ± 4.77%; charcoal content 7.66 ± 0.71%; and moisture content 6.61 ± 0.69%. The FTIR spectrum shows that leaf litter has low water content and indicates the content of phenolic compounds such as flavonoid. The physic-chemical properties of mahogany leaf litter indicate that mahogany leaf litter is suitable to be used as the decay resistance of biocomposite material.