White-rot fungal decay resistance of Teak and Melina wood treated with acetic anhydride

•Acetylation for two tropical hardwood species was achieved.•A trend between weight percent gain (WPG) and fungal attack was observed.•Protection against white-rot fungi was achieved.

The resistance against white-rot fungus Trametes versicolor was studied for chemically modified samples of hardwood tropical species Teak (Tectona grandis) and Melina (Gmelina arborea), which were treated with acetic anhydride for three different reaction times. Acetylated samples with different weight percent gain (WPG) and untreated solid blocks were exposed to the fungus for ninety days. The weight percent loss (WPL) due to the fungal attack was determined for each treatment, for both treated and untreated samples. It was found that treated Teak samples have good protection against fungal attack, but WPG does not affect significantly this protection. For Melina it was found that at higher values of WPG, a higher protection is achieved.