Jon Arno , Talk to us about Makore. Is there any relationship to our Black Cherry, the color is similar, but the grain is more like Mahogany or Luan. When it’s reffered to as African Cherry, I’m guessing it’s only because of the similarity in color. Back to the extractives, there must me some commonality between the two for them to both arrive at the same pigmentation.
bill
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Bill, our native black cherry and Africa's makore are not closely related and the common name "African cherry" probably stems simply from similarities in color...and the creativity of some lumber dealer somewhere along the line, thinking the association might help sales. The same thing is true for jatoba (AKA Brazilian cherry).
Makore belongs to the genus Tieghemella, which is in the Sapotaceae family. The chemistry of this family is very different from that of cherry, which belongs to the Rose family (Rosaceae). Many members of the Sapotaceae produce latex-like sap. In fact chicle, once used for making chewing gum, is tapped from a Tropical American member of this family. However, the chemistry of some species in the Sapotaceae family can get to be pretty potent and irritating for woodworkers who happen to have an allergic sensitivity to it.
On the other hand, cherry is no angel either, in that many members of the Rose family (including cherry) contain a glycoside called prunasin that is a precursor of cyanide...Anyway, while both makore and cherry have similar reddish pigmentation, they don't have very similar chemistry...as evidenced by the fact that the pigments in cherry are photosensitive (darken when exposed to light), while the pigments in makore are much more stable and tend to just oxidize toward the brown end of the spectrum over time.
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