A Reappraisal of the Suitability of <I>Mella azedarach</I> as a Paper Making Raw Material

Abstract

A fresh study of the suitablity of Melia azedarach for pulp and paper has shown that it is a very promising raw material for wrapping, writing aDd printing paper provided the trees are grown not too fast. Very fast grown material is characterised by very low specific gravity and wide fibres with large lumen. These fibres collapse due to their thin walls during the course of sheet formation resulting in poor strength properties. The earlier reports on its unsuitability were apparently based on tests carried out on very fast grown material.