[Nhcoll-l] Dissolving Gum Arabic

[Callomon,Paul]

Folks,

Many of our older mollusk shells were originally glued to boards with Gum Arabic. In the past, we've removed this waxy substance with warm water and mechanical action, but I've been looking for a less physical method. I've now found that steeping the shells in acetone for a few hours dissolves the gum nicely, with no movement needed. Does anyone else have experience with this? We know from past work that acetone does not affect shells beyond driving out any residual water in or on them.


Paul Callomon
Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates
________________________________
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia
callomon at ansp.org<mailto:callomon at ansp.org> Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170


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