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100			_aAnanthakrishna Nadar P
245		0	_aRubber wood: A versatile furniture timber of the future
260			_bIn: Abstracts of Papers: First National Seminar on Rubber Wood, 12 December 1989, Rubber Research Institute of India, Kottayam, Kerala, India, pp. 5. _c1989
520			_aIndia has about 4 lakh hectares under rubber, of which 98;is in the South Indian States of Kerala, Tamilnadu and Karnataka. These plantations, established to produce natural rubber, are replanted when the trees are about 30 years old, when the latex yield becomes uneconomic. As the rubber plantations are continuously replanted, they constitute an important potential wood resource in rubber growing countries. Till the recent past the felled rubber trees were used for firewood and charcoal. With the fast depletion of commercial timbers in many countries, it has become increasingly common in recent years for the felled rubber trees to be used for value added products such as furniture and joinery. Rubber wood being light hard wood and very amenable to seasoning and chemical treatment can be converted into superior wood. Without proper chemical treatment, rubber wood is extremely susceptible to attack by a wide variety of fungi and insects and to brownish decolouration caused by enzymatic oxidation. This high susceptibility to biological degradation and discolouration has until now hindered the wider utilisation of rubber wood. With inherent properties such as light density, attractive appearance and easy workability, well treated rubber wood becomes a versatile timber suitable for a number of uses. With properties comparable to or better than the traditional Indian timbers for furniture such as hollock, pinewood and white cedar, rubber wood is soon expected to become popular as a furniture timber. Rubber wood is also suitable for moulding such as threshholds, panelling, skirting, edging etc.
650			_aRubberwood
942			_cBO
999			_c48021 _d48021