Journal of Tropical Forest Research 1 (2) : 45-56 (2017) Original article Effect of Tannin Addition as a Bio-Scavenger on Formaldehyde Content in Particleboard Trairat Neimsuwan 1* Pornpun Siramon 2 Pongsak Hengniran 1 Vittaya Punsuvon 3 1 Faculty of Forestry, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, 10900 THAILAND 2 King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (Ratchaburi Campus), Ratchaburi, 70150 THAILAND 3 Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, 10900 THAILAND *Corresponding Author, E-mail: ffortrn@ku.ac.th Received: May 30, 2017 Accepted: Dec 22, 2017 ABSTRACT Tannin is a bitter-tasting organic substance found in plant tissue and fnds plausible applications as an adhesive in wood based panel production because it is easy to handle and obtained from renewable sources. The objective of this study was to investigate the infuence of tannin addition to particleboard and its affect on formaldehyde content in the particleboard. Tannin had an impact in terms of reducing the amount of formaldehyde content in the particleboard. When particleboards with and without tannin were compared , the addition of 1.2% tannin (based on oven dry weight of Urea formaldehyde (UF) resin) decreased the formaldehyde content by 21.35% and the various properties of tannin had negligible effect on the formaldehyde content. The addition of tannin improved the physical properties, although the effect on mechanical properties was ambiguous. Therefore, the addition of tannin can reduce the formaldehyde content and it can act as a formaldehyde scavenger. Keywords: Bio-scavenger; Formaldehyde content; Particleboard; Tannin. INTRODUCTION Formaldehyde, a colorless fammable chemical, was discovered in 1855 by a Russian scientist Alexander Michailowitsch Butlerow. By the 1860s, formaldehyde had found usage in various industrial applications. Subsequently it has been widely used in adhesive manufacturing for wood based panel production (Salthammer et al., 2010). Urea formaldehyde (UF) resin has been widely used as a synthetic resin in the wood-based panel industry due to its ease of handling and application, low cost, and the fnished product being colorless (Levendis et al., 1992; Pizzi et al., 1994; Duan et al., 2015). However, UF resin releases some hazardous formaldehyde, which can potentially cause cancer and has been linked with the ‘sick building’ syndrome (Kavvouras et al., 1998;