Determination of lignin content of Eucalyptus globulus wood using FTIR spectroscopy

FTIR spectroscopy was used to quantitatively determine lignin in Eucalyptus globulus wood. A total of 40 wood samples from a 9 year old provenance trial was divided into two independent sets for calibration and validation. Lignin contents, as determined by the acetyl bromide method, ranged from 23 % to 34 % o.d. extractive-free wood. Spectra were recorded with the KBr pellet technique and twelve peaks between 1800cm(-1) to 800cm(-1) used for calibration by linear regression. The best calibration fit (R-2=0.98) was obtained with the 1505cm(-1) peak from lignin and the 1157cm(-1) peak from polysaccharides as a reference. The standard error of calibration (SEC), and the standard error of prediction (SEP) calculated with the validation set, were very low. A linear regression of FTIR measurements proved strong enough to predict lignin content with a very high coefficient of determination. The accuracy of FTIR techniques allows its use in large scale breeding programmes to assess wood lignin content with considerable less effort and shorter time than using wet-lab methods, once a reliable calibration is performed for the species.