MacDiarmid Award for former Centre student
Rotorua scientist Dr Tripti Singh's research targets blue stain fungi, an infection that discolours radiata pine logs soon after harvest and is estimated to cost forestry exporters up to NZ$100 million a year. She is runner-up in the Awards' Adding Value to Nature category.
Tripti did her PhD with the Centre that is hosted by Lincoln University. Centre Director Professor Alison Stewart was Tripti's main supervisor for a PhD project that focused on sap stain control. By the end of her PhD, Tripti had already started working with the beneficial mould fungus Trichoderma that is central to her MacDiarmid Award win.
Damage to logs during harvesting provides a perfect entry point for the blue stain fungi. The infection gets established in the weeks logs lie on ships travelling to overseas ports, resulting in the wood turning blue or black by arrival.
Traditional protection methods use toxic, synthetic chemicals which have implications for both the environment and human health. Tripti's solution combines a natural compound called chitosan, which is abundantly found in the exoskeleton of sea creatures and is a waste product from fish processing, with Trichoderma, to create an eco-friendly treatment option.
The chitosan delays the growth of blue stain fungi long enough for Trichoderma to get established on the wood where it takes all the available nutrients and starves the blue stain fungi to death.
Tripti, now a Bioactive Research Team Leader for Crown Research Institute Scion, says the treatment can be sprayed on logs in the forest straight after harvest and presents an eagerly-awaited wood protection solution to the forestry industry. Field trials of the technology are continuing and Scion is talking to potential partners about commercialising the treatment.
Originally from India, Tripti came to New Zealand 13 years ago and completed her PhD in 2006.
