Madhuca (PROSEA Timbers)

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Plant Resources of South-East Asia
Introduction
List of species


Madhuca Buch.-Ham. ex J.F. Gmelin

Protologue: Syst. nat. 2: 773, 799 (1791).
Family: Sapotaceae
Chromosome number: x= unknown

Trade groups

Nyatoh: lightweight to medium-heavy hardwood, e.g. Madhuca burckiana (Koord.) H.J. Lam, M. malaccensis (C.B. Clarke) H.J. Lam, M. motleyana (de Vriese) J.F. Macbr., M. sericea (Miq.) H.J. Lam.

Bitis: heavy hardwood, e.g. M. betis (Blanco) J.F. Macbr., M. utilis (Ridley) H.J. Lam ex K. Heyne.

Vernacular names

Nyatoh

  • padang (En)
  • Indonesia: nyatuh
  • Philippines: nato.

Bitis

  • Malaysia: nyatoh batu (Sabah, Sarawak)
  • Philippines: betis
  • Burma: meze kamzaw
  • Thailand: masang.

Origin and geographic distribution

Madhuca (including Ganua), comprising about 100 species, has a western Malesian centre of diversity. Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia are particularly rich in species, about 40 and 30 respectively. The genus is distributed from India, Sri Lanka and south-eastern China to New Guinea, and has about 5 species in eastern Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and about 10 in the Philippines. Widely distributed species include M. burckiana (the Philippines to New Guinea), M. malaccensis (Thailand to Borneo) and M. utilis (Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo).

Uses

Nyatoh is used for house building, but it rots rather quickly in contact with the ground. It is in demand for the manufacture of fine-grained furniture, decorative doors, veneers, and for panelling and partitioning. Other uses include strip and parquet flooring, ceilings, boat decking, rotary and sliced veneers used for plywood, and pallets.

Bitis may be used for heavy construction work, e.g. for wharf, bridge and ship building, and for posts, foundation sills, sleepers, paving blocks and tool handles. In the Philippines it is considered an excellent wood for purposes requiring great strength and durability. Bitis is not suited for furniture, interior finishing and veneer, as it is difficult to work, often displaying considerable shrinkage and lack of figure.

The latex from several species gives a gutta-percha of inferior quality, which is sometimes used as an adulterant for the good-quality gutta-percha from Palaquium gutta (Hook.f.) Baillon and Payena leerii (Teijsm. & Binnend.) Kurz.

The seeds of M. betis yield an oil which is used for illuminating, but which is not used as extensively as the oil from the Indian M. longifolia (J. Koenig) J.F. Macbr. The oil from the latter species is also used in food, and for making soap and candles. Oil from the seeds of M. motleyana may also be used for cooking, e.g. in Malaysia.

The fruits of M. obovatifolia are edible. Bark, leaves and latex of M. betis are said to be used medicinally in the Philippines.

Production and international trade

The lighter types of timber from Madhuca species are not traded separately. They are generally obtainable in very limited quantities and mixed with the timber from other Sapotaceae genera such as Palaquium, Payena and Pouteria, and sold collectively as nyatoh or mixed light hardwood.

Exports of nyatoh sawn timber from Peninsular Malaysia decreased from 16 500 m3(with a value of US$ 2.1 million) in 1981 to 9500 m3 (with a value of US$ 1.3 million) in 1986. From 1986 onward the export increased to 32 500 m3 with a value of US$ 6.1 million in 1990, but in 1992 it amounted only 8000 m3 with a value of US$ 2.8 million. Large amounts of nyatoh are also exported from Sarawak and Sabah; the export of round logs from Sabah was 65 000 m3 (worth US$ 6.3 million) in 1987, and in 1992 the export of logs was 14 000 m3 and of sawn timber 8500 m3 with a total value of US$ 4.4 million. In Papua New Guinea nyatoh is ranked in MEP (Minimum Export Price) group 1, and fetched a minimum export price of US$ 100/m3 for saw logs in 1992.

Together with Palaquium ridleyi King & Gamble and P. stellatum King & Gamble, Madhuca utilis and M. betis are the main bitis-producing species. However, this timber is only obtainable in small quantities and is used domestically.

Properties

Madhuca timber, with its density diverging from 420-1150 kg/m3 at 15% moisture content, is classified amongst the lightest to heaviest nyatoh timbers or as bitis timber. The limit between nyatoh and bitis is often considered to be 850 kg/m3, but in some regions (e.g. East Malaysia) bitis is not accepted as a separate group of timber.

A general description of nyatoh and bitis is given here.

Nyatoh is a light to medium-weight, moderately hard to hard, red meranti-like wood. The heartwood is pinkish-brown to reddish-brown and only moderately distinct from the lighter sapwood. The density is (420-)550-800(-850) kg/m3 at 15% moisture content; the majority of the commercial supply being 600-700 kg/m3. The grain is shallowly interlocked, texture moderately fine and even.

At 15% moisture content the modulus of rupture is 70-130 N/mm2, modulus of elasticity 10 000-18 000 N/mm2, compression parallel to grain 28-54 N/mm2, compression perpendicular to grain 2.5-7 N/mm2, shear 8.5-11(-17) N/mm2, cleavage 39-77 N/mm radial and 49-87 N/mm tangential, Janka side hardness 3700-7000 N and Janka end hardness 3900-7600 N.

The recorded rates of shrinkage of nyatoh are moderate, from green to 15% moisture content 1.3-3% radial and 2.3-4% tangential, from green to oven dry about 4.1% radial and 7.6% tangential. The timber usually air dries easily without much degradation if properly stacked. Air drying of boards of 25 mm thick takes about 2 months, of 50 mm thick boards about 5 months. The timber can be satisfactorily dried by using kiln schedule E (Malaysia). Form stability is medium to good when dry.

The sawing properties are variable, probably depending on the species, but variation may also be large within a species. Some nyatoh-producing species contain silica, which makes the timber difficult to work (e.g. M. malaccensis, M. motleyana and M. sericea). Nyatoh is easy to polish. The wood is easy to turn. Pre-boring for nails and screws is advised because of easy splitting. Gluing gives no problems. The fine grain and colour make it suitable for veneer; sometimes the wood is figured and then the veneer can be very attractive, especially when radially sliced. Peeling is reported as easy to fairly difficult, and a good plywood can be made from the timber. The logs are reasonably free from defects.

Nyatoh is rated as only moderately durable. It is prone to termite attack and susceptible to fungal attack, but not to powder-post beetles. Treated nyatoh timber can be very durable. However, it is very resistant to preservative treatment. Using the open tank method and an equal mixture of creosote and diesel, the heartwood absorbs an average of only 11 kg/m3.

Bitis comprises heavier timber, with density of 850-1150 kg/m3 at 15% moisture content. The heartwood is reddish-brown to dark brown, and clearly differentiated from the lighter sapwood. The grain is fairly straight, texture moderately fine and even. Bitis is very hard and strong, and much more durable than nyatoh.

At 15% moisture content the modulus of rupture is 105-170 N/mm2, modulus of elasticity 10 000-23 800 N/mm2, compression parallel to grain 65-90 N/mm2, compression perpendicular to grain 9-12.5 N/mm2, shear 10-17 N/mm2, cleavage c. 86 N/mm radial and 67 N/mm tangential, and Janka side hardness 14 400-14 900 N.

Bitis is difficult to dry; shrinkage rates are rather high (from green to 15% moisture content 3.0% radial and 4.0% tangential) and there is a tendency to surface checking. Boards of 40 mm thick take about 6 months to air dry. A mild kiln schedule (B in Malaysia) should be used.

Bitis is difficult to work, rapidly blunting saws and cutters due to the presence of silica, but it produces a smooth surface in planing and takes stain and polish satisfactorily. The timber tends to split in boring and mortising. It is not suitable for veneer and plywood because it is difficult to peel.

Bitis is durable (test stakes of M. utilis showed an average service life in contact with the ground of 5.5 years), but it is very difficult to impregnate. Substances poisonous to termites are present in wood of M. betis. Timber of M. utilis is not very resistant to marine borers.

Freshly felled wood often has a sour smell and a bitter taste. It lathers freely when rubbed with water.

The seeds often contain saponins. De-fatted seed kernels of M. longifolia contain 26-50% saponin. Seeds of M. motleyana contain cyanides. The oil from the seed kernels principally consists of palmitic and stearic acids.

Description

  • Small to large trees, with latex, sometimes up to 50 m tall, usually with columnar bole up to 100 cm in diameter, buttressed or not, often branchless for a considerable length; outer bark smooth, cracked or fissured, usually brownish, inner bark soft and fibrous, pinkish to reddish-brown, sometimes yellowish; twigs usually slender, hairy (sometimes woolly), scurfy or glabrous at tips.
  • Leaves generally arranged spirally, usually closely to loosely clustered at ends of twigs, sometimes scattered, simple and entire, usually obovate or elliptical, often glabrous when mature but sometimes velvety (e.g. M. sericea) or woolly beneath; secondary veins usually fairly numerous, straight or curved, usually diminishing until inconspicuous at the leaf margin, sometimes joined near the margin by an intramarginal vein, tertiary veins usually reticulate, sometimes parallel or transverse; petiole generally of even thickness throughout its length; stipules usually small and caducous, more rarely large and fairly persistent.
  • Inflorescence an axillary fascicle, 2-many-flowered.
  • Flowers bisexual; sepals 4, in 2 whorls of 2, glabrous or tufted with some hairs at apex; corolla (6-)8-12(-17)-lobed, tube often about as long as the lobes, usually woolly between the stamens at throat of the tube, whitish, pale yellow or pale green; stamens (12-)14-36(-43), in 1-3 whorls inserted at the corolla throat, often with short filaments, anthers mostly mucronate at apex; pistil 1, with (5-)8-9(-15)-celled ovary and long style.
  • Fruit a berry with thin to thick pericarp, 1(-4)-seeded.
  • Seed with thin, hard, shiny testa, contrasting with a narrow (rarely broad), linear, pale dull scar usually with membranous albumen and thick cotyledons.
  • Seedling with epigeal germination and a strongly developed taproot; first pair of leaves opposite or subopposite, subsequent leaves arranged spirally and soon similar to leaves of adult trees.

Wood anatomy

Macroscopic characters

  • Heartwood light brown, red brown to purple or chocolate red-brown, with lighter streaks, distinctly demarcated from the yellow-brown to purple- grey-brown sapwood.
  • Grain straight or shallowly interlocked.
  • Texture moderately fine to fine.
  • Growth rings indistinct to distinct, delimited by a narrow, often darker band of fibrous tissue at the beginning of the ring, and indicated by a zone with few or no vessels and without parenchyma; vessels barely visible to the naked eye; parenchyma and rays usually only visible with a lens.

Microscopic characters

  • Growth rings, if present, indicated by a zone with few or no vessels and/or without parenchyma.
  • Vessels diffuse, occasionally in a weakly pronounced oblique pattern, 5-11(-20)/mm2, mainly in radial multiples of 2-4(-6), round to oval, average tangential diameter 120-180μm; perforations simple; intervessel pits alternate, round, (5-)7-8(-10)μm; vessel-ray pits mainly confined to the upright and square cells, mainly large and simple, horizontally to vertically elongated or round, partly half-bordered, scarce in procumbent cells; helical thickenings absent; normal or sclerotic tyloses present in heartwood.
  • Fibres c. 1000-1900μm long, non-septate, typically very thick-walled, occasionally medium thick-walled, with simple to minutely bordered pits mainly confined to the radial walls.
  • Parenchyma abundant, diffuse, diffuse-in-aggregates or in fine continuous to discontinuous 1-2(-3)-seriate wavy bands sometimes forming a reticulate pattern, (5-)7-14 bands per radial mm, in strands of 5-8(-10) cells.
  • Rays 8-13(-15)/mm, 1-2(-3)-seriate, in some species mainly uniseriate in others mainly 2(-3)-seriate but then with uniseriate tails, up to 1200μm high, typically heterocellular with 2-4(-6) marginal rows of upright or square cells and procumbent body cells.
  • Crystals absent.
  • Silica bodies sometimes present in ray cells, occasionally in parenchyma or fibres.

Species studied: M. betis, M. longifolia, M. sericea, M. utilis.

Growth and development

Large seedlings and saplings may have leaves that are larger, narrower, and more pointed than those of mature trees.

M. longifolia and perhaps also other species are believed to be pollinated by bats which are attracted by and eat the very sweet corollas. Monkeys have been observed to eat the seeds of M. utilis. Many seeds are destroyed in this way, but the ones dropped accidentally are dispersed over some distance.

Other botanical information

Usually Madhuca can be distinguished from other Sapotaceae genera by the flowers having 4 sepals and a corolla with 8 or more lobes, and by the seed having a thin endosperm and thick cotyledons. Some trees such as meranti (Shorea spp.), terentang (Campnosperma spp.) and mengkulang (Heritiera spp.) may look rather like nyatoh or bitis. The presence of latex in nyatoh and bitis is, however, a sufficient distinguishing characteristic. Several species dealt with here under Madhuca (e.g. M. motleyana) have often been considered to belong to the separate genus Ganua, which was said to differ in having characteristic tufts of hairs at the apex of the sepals, and in a thinner pericarp. These distinguishing characters are, however, not reliable and it seems better to merge Ganua and Madhuca.

In India the timber from M. longifolia is used for furniture, boats and carts.

Ecology

Like other nyatoh or bitis-producing trees, Madhuca is found in primary forest. Several species occur in permanent or seasonal freshwater forest or peat-swamp forest (e.g. M. motleyana). Usually Madhuca species are restricted to lowland rain forest and occur up to 1000 m altitude. The montane species M. endertii forms an exception. Some species are common locally, e.g. M. motleyana and M. utilis in Peninsular Malaysia.

Propagation and planting

Seeds of M. utilis take 3-16 weeks to germinate.

Silviculture and management

Very little or no special attention is given to nyatoh or bitis in silvicultural practices. Regeneration in logged-over forest is usually plentiful, similar to that in other Sapotaceae genera. In the forest the trees are managed and harvested in the same way as meranti, as they often grow together with Shorea trees and the timber is similar. Planting is not practised.

Genetic resources

Not much is known about eventual depletion of the stands of species, but as the trees are sometimes harvested as meranti and not subject to enrichment planting, it might be expected that several species are liable to genetic erosion or even extinction.

Literature

  • Browne, F.G., 1955. Forest trees of Sarawak and Brunei and their products. Government Printing Office, Kuching. pp. 323-325.
  • Burgess, P.F., 1966. Timbers of Sabah. Sabah Forest Records No 6. Forest Department, Sabah, Sandakan. pp. 447-455.
  • Desch, H.E., 1954. Manual of Malayan timbers. Vol. 2. Malayan Forest Records No 15. Malaya Publishing House Ltd., Singapore. pp. 546-550.
  • Lim, S.C., 1989. Malaysian timbers - bitis. Timber Trade Leaflet No 110. Malaysian Timber Industry Board, Forest Research Institute Malaysia. 6 pp.
  • Meniado, J.A., Tamolang, F.N., Lopez, F.R., America, W.M. & Alonzo, D.S., 1975. Wood identification handbook for Philippine timbers. Vol. 1. Government Printing Office, Manila. pp. 304-307.
  • Ng, F.S.P., 1972. Sapotaceae. In: Whitmore, T.C. (Editor): Tree flora of Malaya. Vol. 1. Malayan Forest Records No 26. Longman Malaysia SDN Berhad, Kuala Lumpur. pp. 388-439.
  • Pennington, T.D., 1991. The genera of Sapotaceae. Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, New York Botanical Garden. 295 pp.
  • van den Assem, J., 1953. Revision of the Sapotaceae of the Malaysian area in a wider sense IV. Ganua Pierre ex Dubard. Blumea 7: 364-400.
  • van Royen, P., 1960. Revision of the Sapotaceae of the Malaysian area in a wider sense XX. Madhuca Gmelin. Blumea 10: 1-117.
  • Wong, T.M., 1981. Malaysian timbers - nyatoh. Malaysian Forest Service Trade Leaflet No 54. Malaysian Timber Industry Board, Kuala Lumpur. 12 pp.

Selection of species

Authors

  • J. Kartasubrata (general part),
  • N. Tonanon (properties),
  • R.H.M.J. Lemmens (properties, selection of species),
  • R. Klaassen (wood anatomy)
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