Improvement on the Lactitol Conservation Method Used for the Conservation of Archaeological Waterlogged Wood

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In order to conserve and exhibit waterlogged archaeological wood, it is first necessary to remove excessive water from wood cells and reinforce the destructed cells. Recently in Europe, sugar, especially sucrose, which itself is a component part of wood, has been practically applied instead of PEG (Polyethylene Glycol) for the impregnation of archaeological wood for conservation. However, the use of sucrose is unsuited to the Japanese environment when Japan's hot and humid climate and the high risk of biological degradation are taken into consideration. Under such conditions a sucrose solution may ferment and the high humidity level may cause the sucrose to liquefy, which will in turn cause the risk of the treated wood being attacked by insects like ants. Having considered various sugar alcohols (industrially manufactured sugars) available that had properties such as low hygroscopicity, high water solu bility and microbiological stability, we decided to use the comparatively inexpensive lactitol and trehalose.The conservation method developed since 1994 has been using a sugar alcohol, namely lactitol, for the consery ation of waterlogged wood and lacquer ware. Using this method, impregnation of the waterlogged wood at room tern perature and raised temperature can be carried out. Now, over thirty separate organizations are using lactitol with success in Japan, Hungary, Mexico and Poland.I want to give a lecture about the latest result with the development of sugar alcohol method in this announcement.