Physical properties of 25 years old Sentang (Azadirachta excelsa) planted at Gurun, Kedah

Abstract

To meet the local and international market's timber demands, Azadirachta excelsa, a native tree locally known as a Sentang, has been listed among the potential fast-growing species to be planted for forest plantation establishment in the mid -1990s by the Malaysian government. Understanding wood properties is well known as crucial for the industry to use it as a raw material properly. Because of the underrepresented and limited accessible data on the tree's qualities, the species' potential has been determined. The physical properties of the 25-year-old Sentang tree planted in Gurun, Kedah, Malaysia, were discussed in this paper. The impact of radial growth rates on moisture content, density, and shrinkage from the pith to the bark at the stump, DBH, middle, and top of the trees is investigated in this paper. As a result, three trees were cut and classed as slow, average, or fast-growing. The results were as follows. From the pith to the bark, the green MC of all classed trees continues to diminish. The density, on the other hand, did not follow the same pattern; however, fast-growing trees have lower densities than slower-growing trees at the bottom, DBH, middle, and top of the trees. Tangential, radial, and longitudinal shrinkage appeared to reduce as tree height climbed, then increase again at the trees' tops.