Leucaena leucocephala: an underutilized plant for pulp and paper production

Abstract

Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit. is native to Central America and Mexico, but now grows naturally in most tropical areas globally. It is a neglected and underutilized; medium to small sized tree of multiple values. It is commonly known as wild tamarind in English and subabul in Hindi. In recent years, Leucaena has gained a great attention for its utilization as raw material on large scale for pulp and paper industries and manufacturing of packaging material. Present paper deals with distribution, morphological description, current utilization, future prospective and propagation of this species. During the present study we have standardized macro-propagation technique for L. leucocephala. We used fly ash amended sand to develop rooting media for vegetative propagation of L. leucocephala and assess its potential as a rooting media. Root formation was significantly high (p \ 0.05) in 10 % FA amended sand in comparison to other used media. Rooted plants showed nutrient deficiency symptoms after 40-50 days in sand while in 10 % FA amended sand they were healthy, greener and do not showed nutrient deficiency symptoms. On the basis of present study, it is concluded that 10 % fly ash amended sand is a suitable rooting media for vegetative propagation of L. leucocephala.

Anthelmintic activity of Leucaena leucocephala protein extracts on Haemonchus contortus

“…Native to Central America, Leucaena can be found in many tropical and subtropical regions of the world (LIM, 2012;NEHDI et al, 2014) and is often used as forage for livestock (PRASAD et al, 2011;PANDEY & KUMAR, 2013). Leucaena exhibits anthelmintic properties against both H. contortus (OLIVEIRA et al, 2011) and Trichostrongylus colubriformis (CUNHA et al, 2003).…”

Novel lipase from basidiomycetes Schizophyllum commune ISTL04, produced by solid state fermentation of Leucaena leucocephala seeds

“…This legume tree has found a prime role in agro-forestry system owing to its ability to fix nitrogen thus facilitating the growth of other plants. Not only that, it helps in preventing soil erosion and can easily grow on marginal lands with high biomass production [15]. L. leucocephala is has been used widely as firewood, timber, fodder, green manure, bioethanol production, paper production etc.…”

Preparation and characterization of cellulose and microcrystalline cellulose isolated from waste Leucaena leucocephala seeds

“…The fact that this fast-growing plant could grow on marginal lands with minimum care had attracted attention for researchers to maximize its possible utilization. Some studies focused on using its biomass as livestock feed (Ahmed and Abdelati, 2009), paper production (Pandey and Kumar, 2013) and extraction of oil from LLS for cosmetic and pharmaceutical or conversion to biodiesel (Phoo et al, 2012). However, waste LLS, obtained as residues after extraction of oil are unused although it has a potential as a source of lignocellulosic material.…”