Abstract

context: Isolation and Identification of various types of microbes present on documents and the inhibitory effect of Ink on their growth. aim: The aim of the experiment is to study the inhibitory effect of ink on certain microorganisms prevalent in the cellulose of paper. settings and design: An experimental setup was designed to study the effect of ink on different microbial growth on cellulose paper. For this purpose, pages of old books were used as a sample on which a well diffusion method was applied for determining the effect by ink. materials & method: Decaying book papers were collected from Ranchi city, Jharkhand, India. From these decaying paper samples four bacterial strains and one fungal strain was isolated and identified as Providentia stuartii, Serratia odorifera, Bacillus megaterium, Pseudomonas antimicrobica, and Aspergillus niger respectively. The effect of ink on these microorganisms were studied by agar well diffusion method. results: Black, and blue gel pen inks showed maximum zone of inhibition against Providentia stuartii. Blue ball pen ink also showed maximum zone of inhibition against Providentia stuartii and Serratia odorifera. Red ball point ink showed maximum inhibition zone against Bacillus megaterium and black ball point pen ink showed maximum zone of inhibition for Pseudomonas antimicrobica. conclusions: With printing ink no inhibitory effect was observed on the bacterial strain and zone of inhibition was completely absent. However, green colored printer’s ink showed maximum inhibitory effect on fungus Aspergillus niger.

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