Prevention of brown-rot decay by chelators

In this work the brown-rot decay was shown to be prevented by chelating the endogenous metals existing in wood by using organic or inorganic chelators or iron-binding siderophores. The fungal growth and decaying ability were significantly decreased by the chelating treatments of the solid wood-based culture medium and pine wood pieces, respectively. The transition metals existing in native wood are proposed to be the key elements in the brown-rot decay mechanism. Of these, especially iron has an important role both in the oxidative degradative pathway and for the growth of the decaying organism. This new method may lead to the development of a specific efficient and non-toxic method for preventing brown-rot.