Wood Tar Production Without the Use of Ceramic Vessels: Experimental Archaeology in Grodzisko Żmijowiska

Several pits, the remains of wood tar production using the so-called ‘vessel-less method’, were discovered in the Lublin region. They contained objects related to the early Middle Ages. These discoveries were used as the base for experiments run in 2013 in the experimental archaeology centre at Grodzisko Żmijowiska. The first experiment involved the acquisition of wood tar from birch bark, while the other attempts were aimed at extracting tar from pine stumpwood. The experiments were conducted in a shallow pit that was plastered with clay and had a small depression at its bottom used as a container for the tar, separated from the pit by a clay strainer. The raw material gathered in the pit was covered with a clay dome. When the dome was dry, it was slowly heated up with burning wood to the right temperature which was checked inside the dome with a thermocouple. Both processes were conducted successfully. The results were compared with experiments focused on the production of wood tar using the two-vessel method known in the early Middle Ages. The comparison showed that the vessel-less method is less economical due to the amount of fuel used and almost three times less efficient in terms of the raw material to final product ratio. However, it is very simple technically and allows the effective production of wood tar.

Synthesis of Antiseptic Soap from Blends of Wood Tar and Some Selected Vegetable Oils

Antiseptic soap is a cleansing product to which active ingredient have been added to kill bacteria or germs. Usually, the price associated with conventional antiseptic soap is prohibitive, thus the need for cheap alternative sources of antiseptic soap could not be overemphasized. Traditionally, wood tar inherits antiseptic properties from the parent tree, it therefore provides an easily accessible and affordable recipe for antiseptic soap manufacture. In this paper, we elucidate the use of wood tar extracted from selected local trees (cassia, eucalyptus, and neem) as feedstock to synthesize antibacterial soap, by blending separately with vegetable oil. Two common vegetable oils (castor and peanut oils) were used in this work. The wood tar extracted by destructive distillation of the wood was characterized using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry techniques. The analysis indicates that wood tar from the selected trees contain antiseptic components like creosol. The optimum blend ratios of wood tar to vegetable oil suitable for saponification in terms of soap yield was also investigated. Similarly, the soap formulation from optimum blend of wood tar and vegetable oil was characterized to determine pH, foam ability, cleansing power and the microbial activity of the soap. The antimicrobial sensitivity results indicate that the soap has significant inhibitory property on E. coli bacteria. More also, for the selected vegetable oils considered, peanut oil blend was found to give higher yield of soap compared to castor oil blend.

Evaluation of Antifungal and Antioxidant Effects of Qutran (Wood Tar) from Olea europaea Subsp. Cuspidate

Qutran oil (Olea europaea) extracted as medicinal plants extracted has a great activity against four fungistrains. Aspergillus (flavus, fumigatus, niger) and Candida albicans throughout using agar well diffusion in our investgation. Results showed that, tar oilhas antifungal effects against studied strains. Inhibition growth rate was from 16.33 to 46.00 mm. and also has positive activities against investagated organisms more than traditional antibiotics either amphoteracin B or Nystatin. A. fumigatus was mainly susceptible fungi followed by A. niger while A. flavus has the most resistant fungi with inhibition zone (16.33 mm). Wood tar oil, Olea europaea, given a high DPPH radical scavenging activity 79.10% compared to ascorbic acid.