The dry rot fungus Serpula lacrymans (Wulfen:Fr.) Schroeter is notorious in building environments for its vitality, destructive potential, and the huge costs associated with remediation of damage caused to wood of cultural heritage. Due to the potentially adverse of effects of chemical treatment methods such as have been attempted in the past, more benign physical methods of treatment, e.g. heat treatment, are currently under investigation. The diploma thesis of Marcus Lüdicke deals with the influence of cold treatment on growth of 5 brown rot fungi, 1 white rot fungus, 1 soft rot fungus and 1 blue stain fungus. Fungi were cultured with temperatures of 20°C, 15 °C, 10°C and 5 °C (Test series A). Test series B involved maintaining Petri dishes with mycelia of all fungi in refrigerators for one month at – 20°C or -80°C with subsequent recultivation on artificial media In test series C, Petri dishes with mycelia of all fungi were treated with nitrogen for 30 minutes at – 196°C. Results demonstrated that Serpula lacrymans is highly sensitive to cold treatment. No mycelial growth occurred from minus 20°C. Oligoporus placenta and Lentinus lepideus were very resistant to cold. Ophiostoma piliferum and Chaetomium globosum reacted with atypical mycelia growth. The potential applications of this new technique in cultural heritage will be discussed.

Download document (147 kb)
free for the members of IRG. Available if purchased.

Purchase this document