Efforts to establish large scale homogeneous plantations of native Meliaceae have almost invariably failed due to larval attacks by the shoot borer Hypsipyla (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae). The host range of this oligophagous pantropical genus is limited principally to the Swietenioideae. Of this sub-family, important species of the genera Khaya and Entandrophragma in Africa, Swietenia and Cedrela in Latin America and Toona in Asia and Australia are attacked.

However, Toona ciliata introduced to Brazil shows excellent growth and an absence of attacks by H. grandella, in contrast to the native Cedrela odorata. The latter has been grafted to stems of T. ciliata and the resistance has been translocated from the Toona stock to the Cedrela graft. The chemistry of these grafts have not been previously studied. Thus, we have been examining the stem of C. odorata grafted on T. ciliata var. australis, in order to determine if secondary metabolites present in the latter could be translocated into the former.