Determination of monosaccharide composition of Eucalyptus globulus wood byFTIR spectroscopy

FTIR spectroscopy was used to estimate monosaccharide content in Eucalyptus globulus wood, using the natural variability of the species for calibratio n and validation of the method. A total of 38 samples from 9 year old trees from provenance trials was used. The composition ranged for glucose from 4 3.2 % to 59.5 %, for xylose from 9.4 % to 17.8 %, for galactose from 0.5 % to 5.4 %, for mannose from D Sb to 2.8 %, and for rhamnose from 0.3 % to 0. 8 %, based on extractive-free dry wood. The multivariate analysis gave in g eneral, better results with increased R-2, lower SEC and SEP errors, althou gh the univariate method also gave good fits with high coefficient of deter mination (R2) based on remaining data once outliers were removed. FTIR tech niques may be used in large scale breeding programmes to measure wood monos accharide composition with considerably less effort and in shorter time tha n wet-lab methods, once a reliable calibration has been made for the specie s.