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

为了保存和展示被淹的考古木材，首先需要去除木材细胞中多余的水分，并加固被破坏的细胞。最近，在欧洲，糖，特别是蔗糖，它本身是木材的组成部分，实际上已经被用来代替聚乙二醇来浸渍考古木材以进行保护。然而，考虑到日本炎热潮湿的气候和生物降解的高风险，蔗糖的使用不适合日本的环境。在这种情况下，蔗糖溶液可能会发酵，高湿度可能会导致蔗糖液化，这反过来会导致处理后的木材有被蚂蚁等昆虫攻击的风险。考虑到现有的各种糖醇(工业生产的糖)具有低吸湿性、高水溶度和微生物稳定性等特性，我们决定使用相对便宜的乳糖醇和海藻糖。自1994年以来，保护方法一直使用糖醇，即乳糖醇，用于积水的木材和漆器的保存。利用这种方法，可以在常温和高温条件下对浸渍木材进行浸渍。现在，在日本、匈牙利、墨西哥和波兰，有30多个不同的组织正在使用乳糖醇，并取得了成功。在这份声明中，我想就糖醇法的最新进展发表演讲。

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.