Abstract
The natural resistance to termite attack of some woods has long been known, but chemical analyses, to determine the specific chemical constituents responsible, have rarely been made. Until very recently almost the only exception seems to have been in the case of East Indian teak, Tectona grandis L. The well-known resistance to weathering, decay and insect attack of teakwood is apparently due to the presence of beta-methylanthraquinone (tectoquinone). A ten minute submersion in a 1% solution in acetone of tectoquinone will indefinitely protect susceptible woods against attack by the West Indian dry-wood termite, Cryptotermes brevis Walker, (Wolcott 1946). The partly-eaten keys of a piano (of which one key had already been replaced with a duplicate made of mahogany), heavily infested with these termites, have thus been successfully protected against further injury, despite the fact that the untreated remainder of the piano is falling to pieces, so rapidly is its oak case being devoured.
