[Nhcoll-l] Restoring a damaged transparent specimen

[Andries J. van Dam]

Dear Claire,

 

Glycerol is a trihydroxy sugar alcohol with a highly polar surface area that mixes very well with water and therefore has no affinity to low-polar aromatic oils like methyl salicylate and benzyl benzoate. They simply do not mix. 

 

If you want to properly transfer it to glycerol you first must remove the oils in the tissue by transferring the specimen through acetone baths which could create other unwanted morphological changes to the tissue. To my opinion, it would be best to transfer it back to the original fluid being according to the catalogue a mixture of methyl salicylate / benzyl benzoate (5:4).

 

Kind regards,

 

Dries

--

Andries J. van Dam (director)

Alcomon Company
Leliestraat 54
2313BH Leiden
Netherlands

Tel: +31615676299
E-mail: ajvandam at alcomon.com 
Website: http://www.alcomon.com

 

 

 

 

Van: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> namens Claire Smith <claire.smith at reading.ac.uk>
Datum: woensdag 5 november 2025 om 10:18
Aan: Natural History Collections Listserv <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Onderwerp: [Nhcoll-l] Restoring a damaged transparent specimen

 

Hi everyone, 

 

 With apologies for cross-posting, I'm looking for some advice about working with a damaged specimen. 

 

It's a newborn monkey that was originally an alizarin transparency, prepared by the Spalteholz technique (https://doi.org/10.1016/s0940-9602(01)80020-0), with our catalogue listing the preservative as "Methyl salicylate 5: benzyl benzoate 4".

 

In 2008 it was apparently in poor condition with crystal deposition, and it was transferred into 100% glycerol. 

 

Currently, a lipid layer has formed at the top of the fluid, which is also cloudy - presumably also with suspended lipids. 

The tissue is no longer transparent. 

 

My questions are: 

 

Is it possible to make the tissues transparent again? (If so, how?!)

Is it best to keep the specimen in glycerol, but dilute it to a more appropriate concentration? 

 

 

Many thanks,

Claire

 

*******

Survey: Fluid Preservation Methods in Biological Collections

https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/reading/fluid-preservation-methods-in-biological-collections

 

*******

Claire Smith (she/her), AFHEA 

Graduate Teaching Assistant: Tuesdays and Wednesdays

PhD Researcher: Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays

 

Cole Museum of Zoology

University of Reading


claire.smith at reading.ac.uk 

www.linkedin.com/in/wetconservatrix
Social media: @wetconservatrix

 

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