Bioburden assessment and gamma radiation inactivation patterns in parchment documents

• Characterization of the microbial population of parchment documents.
• Study the inactivation pattern of parchment microbiota by gamma radiation.
• Assessment of the minimal gamma radiation dose for the parchment decontamination.
• The microbial population in tested parchments was mainly constituted by bacteria.
• Cladosporium cucumerinum was the most frequent fungal species.

Parchment documents are part of our cultural heritage and, as historical artifacts that they are, should be preserved. The aim of this study was to validate an appropriate methodology to characterize the bioburden of parchment documents, and to assess the growth and gamma radiation inactivation patterns of the microbiota present in that material. Another goal was to estimate the minimum gamma radiation dose (Dmin) to be applied for the decontamination of parchment as an alternative treatment to the current toxic chemical and non-chemical decontamination methods. Two bioburden assessment methodologies were evaluated: the Swab Method (SM) and the Destructive Method (DM). The recovery efficiency of each method was estimated by artificial contamination, using a Cladosporium cladosporioides spore suspension. The parchment samples' microbiota was typified using morphological methods and the fungal isolates were identified by ITS-DNA sequencing. The inactivation pattern was assessed using the DM after exposure to different gamma radiation doses, and using C. cladosporioides as reference. Based on the applied methodology, parchment samples presented bioburden values lower than 5×103 CFU/cm2 for total microbiota, and lower than 10 CFU/cm2 for fungal propagules. The results suggest no evident inactivation trend for the natural parchment microbiota, especially regarding the fungal community. A minimum gamma radiation dose (Dmin) of 5 kGy is proposed for the decontamination treatment of parchment. Determining the minimal decontamination dose in parchment is essential for a correct application of gamma radiation as an alternative decontamination treatment for this type of documents avoiding the toxicity and the degradation promoted by the traditional chemical and non-chemical treatments.