Isolation of DNA from unprocessed and processed wood of Dipterocarpaceae Forest destruction and degradation (deforestation) remain major threats to the global biodiversity and cause enormous environmental damage in particular in tropical regions where the highest density of species is accommodated. One third of global deforestation was caused by logging in which more than 50% was illegally done (Brack 2003). Dipterocarpaceae (dipterocarpsʺ) is a species rich tree family distributed over the tropical belt of three continents of South America Africa and Asia. Dipterocarps predominate the international tropical timber market (trade names: meranti balau for Shorea spp. keruing for Dipterocarpus spp. kapur for Dryobalanops etc.) and therefore play an important role in the economy of many Southeast Asian countries. However in many regions dipterocarps are critically endangered due to forest destruction and non sustainable forest management. Many activities have been initiated by government or non government organizations to fight illegal logging. Several associations of wood product manufacturers have released policy statements in which member companies are committed to sourcing their wood or timber from legal and well managed forests. Therefore the development of tools to test the origin of wood particularly to check the plausibility of statements concerning the origin of wood from a certain forest enterprise is required. Molecular genetic methods can be useful to infer species identity and are promising tools to control the geographic origin of logged timber ...