Leaf litter is an organic waste that can be degraded biologically in nature. Based on the previous research, mahogany trees in Universitas Negeri Semarang (UNNES) campus produce about 10 ton ha−1 leaf litter in campus forest area and 2.5 ton ha−1 along campus street within three-month-period. By this abundant amount of leaf litter, it is quite difficult to overcome the problem of litter management. Therefore, the idea of leaf litter utilization as a raw material of biocomposite is promising to reduce the use of wood as an important commodity of human needs. However, the characterization of leaf litter feasibility for biocomposite production has not been done. This research aims to characterize the physicochemical properties of mahogany leaf litter. Leaf litter was oven-dried for 5 h at 50 °C and then was ground using a mechanical blender to obtain leaf litter powder. Then, the proximate (moisture, proteins, fat and carbohydrate content) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis were performed. The results show that the content of crude ash is 9.90 ± 0.65%; crude protein content 24.83 ± 0.79%; crude fat content 11.37 ± 1.05%; volatile compound 65.14 ± 4.77%; charcoal content 7.66 ± 0.71%; and moisture content 6.61 ± 0.69%. The FTIR spectrum shows that leaf litter has low water content and indicates the content of phenolic compounds such as flavonoid. The physic-chemical properties of mahogany leaf litter indicate that mahogany leaf litter is suitable to be used as the decay resistance of biocomposite material.

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This work has been carried out to use clove leaf oil as a composite coating component having anti-fungal properties. The mushroom growth testing was carried out with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) testing with variations in concentrations of 0%, 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, 0.8%, up to 1% and obtained MIC values of clove oil found at a concentration of 0.4% in inhibiting the growth of white-rot fungi. Ganoderma lucidum mushroom is used as a weathering fungus applied in composites. The results of SSD testing showed that the growth of Ganoderma lucidum fungus began to be inhibited in composites coated with clove oil with a concentration of 0.6%.FTIR testing showed the presence of hydroxyl group (O-H), methylene group (C-H), alkenyl (C=C), and aromatic ring (C=C-C), GC-MS test results showed clove oil containing 67.40% eugenol, 17.42% beta-caryophyllene, 2.91% isopropenyl acetate, 1.56% caryophyllene oxide and 0.91% alpha-copaene. Based on research data, it shows that clove leaf oil can be used as an anti-fungal coating component in composites.