At the present time the employment of natural products and the research of eco-friendly solutions is mandatory in all the fields of research. The restoration of cultural heritages employed chemical products for many years following the imperative of the conservation, but today new approaches and solutions can be found. Essential oils can be one of the successful solutions in preventing degradation of different materials. The biocidal efficacy of three of them: Calamintha nepeta, Origanum vulgare and Thymus vulgaris and their respective major components (pulegone, carvacrol, thymol) has been already assessed against different microorganisms colonizers of stone materials.
Wood is one of the main components of cultural heritage. Thanks to the great availability, the relative low cost and the incredible versatility it has been used for an incredible number of different applications: carpentry, furniture production, paintings support, sculptures and musical instruments. As others, and probably more than others natural products, wood can be affected by important phenomena that required specific hydro-climatic parameters and a constant maintenance to prevent or slackening degradation.
The aim of this project is to have a systematic evaluation of the efficacy of the aforementioned phytochemical compounds in the reducing and preventing biological attack on wood.
The effect of phytochemical compounds, in different concentrations and compositions, on different species of wood will be assessed. Morphological, physical and colorimetric characterization of the samples and the determination of their specific bioreceptivity will be evaluated. Moreover, to better investigate the behavior and eventual changes of the physical properties of the wood samples in presence of the biofilm and the phytochemical compounds, NMR technology will be employed in an innovative way.
