Identification of historical ink ingredients using pyrolysis-GC-MS. A model study.

In the past centuries inks were prepared using many different recipes and contained a great variety of ingredients. This work presents analyses of some substances, which were used in addition to the common components of inks such as gallnuts, vitriol and charcoal, in the course of ink preparation. Qualitative characterization of seeds and peel of pomegranate, arabic gum, apricot gum, saffron, henna and mustard are reported. The analyses were carried out using pyrolysis coupled to a gas chromatograph with mass-spectrometric detection (Py-GC/MS).