Production of wood varnish from Ambalau resin of Durio zibethinus (Murr.): A preliminary study

Abstract

Background and Objective: The resin that is naturally synthesized from the bark of the Durio zibethinus (Murr.) plant can be used to prepare the wood varnish. In this study, efforts were made to characterize the Ambalau resin that use to produce the wood varnish and assessed its quality. Materials and Methods: The research design of this study was exploratory research design. The properties of extracted Ambalau resin were analyzed and compared with that of Agathis dammara resin as the commercially available resin for varnish production. Moreover, the qualities of produced varnish were also further analyzed and compared with the common standard for wood Varnish. Results: As the results, the Ambalau resin as the raw material of varnish has similar properties compared to Agathis dammara but lower in softening point. The varnish produced from Ambalau resin had also met the quality parameter of wood varnish according to the International Standard for wood Varnish, despite the improvement of a better drying time need to be considered. Conclusion: Naturally synthesized resin from Durio zibethinus (Murr.) bark has been discovered to have basic characteristics for the production of wood varnish with further studies.