Acta Scientiarum Polonorum
Silvarum Colendarum Ratio et Industria Lignaria

Quinine fungus (Laricifomes officinalis) is a typical monophagic species decaying in Central Europe nearly exclusively hardwood of trees from Larix genus. The main reason of these narrow trophic preferences is probably the specific chemical composition of Larch wood and, especially, the lack of some phenolic compounds that might play an important role as natural inhibitors of Quinine fungus growth. To improve this theory five different phenolic compounds selected basing on results of previous investigation and quantity analysis of phenolic compounds in wood of 25 different tree species were tested in laboratory conditions. They were as follows: 3’,5’-dimethoxyacethophenone, furanone, 2,6-dimethoxy-4(propenyl)phenol, syringe aldehyde and 1,4-buthanodiamine-2,3-dime­thoxy N,N,N’,N’tetramethyl. Wood samples saturated by solutions of this substances were exposed on the mycelium of L. officinalis. Results of this experiment compared with the range of control sample’s decay showed that all the tested phenolic compounds caused the decrease of the range of wood decomposition by L. officinalis. It means that they work as natural growth inhibitors of this fungus and probably are one of the reasons of its specific trophic preferences.