A small aliquot (<50 g) of the wood was loaded into a quartz pyrolysis tube, which was plugged with loosely packed quartz wool at both ends. Each sample was injected with 10 l of tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) in methanol . The samples were allowed to evaporate for 12 h. Subsequently, samples were heated to 350°C with a CDS 2000 Pyroprobe attached via a CDS 1500 interface (320°C). The thermochemolysis products were then transferred at a 10:1 split ratio to an Agilent Technologies 6890 gas chromatograph coupled to a 5973 mass spectrometer. Separation was performed on a 30 m × 0.25 mm × 0.25 µm J&W Scientific DB-5MS Ultra Inert column. The helium column flow rate was set at 1.1 ml min -1 . The GC oven was initially held at 40°C for 2 min, then ramped at 5 °C min -1 to 310 °C, where it was held for 10 min, for a total run length of 66 min. All samples were run in triplicate. Identification of products was based on Filey et al. .