## 1 Introduction  
Having elevated temperature and humidity in Indonesia as a tropical country is an ideal condition for termite attack on wood and wood products throughout the year. The annual economic loss caused by termites on wood-based material in buildings was approximately reached USD 1 billion [1]. This economic loss could increase in the future because the timber supply in the country has recently shifted from natural growth to plantation forests, which have a short period of harvesting plans. Non-poisonous compounds that chemically modify the wood are being used to replace traditional preservatives to extend the service life of wood products. One important issue is to assess the efficacy of environmentally friendly chemicals and approaches. In previous work, evaluated the termite resistance of European beech modified by impregnating different aqueous solutions of glycerol maleate or polyglycerol maleate at different concentrations, namely 10% or 40%, _uvw_ into the wood followed by thermal treatment at three temperature levels of 180 \({}^{\circ}\)C, 200 \({}^{\circ}\)C, or 220 \({}^{\circ}\)C [2]. Field tests conducted for one year in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, showed that all wood samples treated with the combination of chemical and thermal modification had significantly higher termite resistance than that of untreated and thermally modified samples. In another study, [3] reported results for four wood species, namely sengon, jabon, mangium and pine that had been impregnated with methyl methacrylate (MMA) and then in-ground exposed to termites for three months. Untreated control and imidacloprid-treated samples were also prepared for comparison purposes. The MMA-treated samples had increased resistance against subterranean termite attack during in-ground testing, but the level was lower than that of imidacloprid-treated wood. In another work, acetylated rubber-wood (_Hevea brasiliensis_) flakeboard samples with a weight percent gain of 18% were kept in the field for 12 weeks. It was found that weight loss and protection level of untreated flakeboard were 83.6% and 0.0, while corresponding values for acetylated flakeboard were 8.7% and 9.0, respectively [4]. Other wood modification techniques have also been investigated to develop better products and a more eco-friendly process [5]. Among these methods, furfurylation is considered one of the most effective modification techniques. Furfurylation involves modification of wood with furfuryl alcohol (FA). FA can be obtained through the hydrogenation of pentosans present in agricultural and wood by-products [6]. Furfurylation of wood has been considered a promising one and studied with regard to ecotoxicity, physical and mechanical properties, dimensional stabilization, and durability of products [7]. Furfurylation of wood may also enhance its resistance to termite attack. [PERSON] et al. studied furfurylation of three wood species, namely Scotch pine (_Pinus sylvestris_), agathis (_Agathis dammara_) and sengon, and then exposed samples to dry wood termites (_Cryptotermes cynoccephalus_) in laboratory tests and to subterranean termites (_Macrotermes gilvus_) in in-ground tests [8]. The results showed that furfurylated wood specimens with a weight percentage gain (WPG) of more than 40% were highly resistant to attack by both dry wood and subterranean termites. Furfurylation is believed to be a safe process for the environment [9]. The process has many advantages, with an excellent potential furfurylation yielding excellent and eco-friendly material [10]. A chemical catalyst is needed to induce the FA molecules to polymerize each other or to graft the wood for a typical furfurylation process. [PERSON] et al. reported that tartaric acid could be used as a catalyst for the furfurylation of beech wood. However, this catalyst has not been used in tropical wood, including the fast-growing wood species of plantation forests [11].