[Taxacom] Water soluble mounting media

[Richard Zander]

Regarding Dimethylhydatoin formaldehyde polymer, my bottle (from Lonza, Inc. Allendale, NJ, USA) says "contains up to 0.5% formaldehyde," not a good thing to inhale every day in even small amounts. When I mixed up a 1/3 water, 1/3 polymer, and 1/3 glycerin, it made a nice crystal clear mount but the sensitive plant (a moss, Tortula hoppeana) I use for testing by wetting it in water first, then shriveled up when put in the mountant. Heating did no good (though heating plumps up collapsed tissues in glycerin).

Regarding the PVOH/glycerin mixtures available online, they are costly, and use glycerin as a plasticizer for the PVOH, not as a main ingredient, so the index of refraction is not a high as with a mountant containing 1/2 glycerin.

I believe that a PVOH/glycerin mount should last as long as a pure glycerin mount (long, but not forever).



____________________________
Richard H. Zander
Missouri Botanical Garden, PO Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299 USA
Web sites: http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/ and http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/bfna/bfnamenu.htm
Evol. Syst.: <http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/EvSy/Intro.htm> http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/EvSy/Intro.htm<http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/EvSy/Intro.htmUPS>
UPS and FedExpr -  Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Blvd, St. Louis MO 63110 USA

________________________________
From: dr.tony.irwin at gmail.com [mailto:dr.tony.irwin at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Tony Irwin
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2014 3:13 PM
To: Richard Zander
Cc: Dan Lahr; taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Water soluble mounting media

I note that a firm in Wales is offering what I assume to be PVOH/glycerine mountant for sale (25ml for £5.80 plus postage). See this link<http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Microscope-Slide-Mountant-Water-Based-L-C-25ml-/350077948977?pt=UK_BOI_Medical_Lab_Equipment_Lab_Supplies_ET&hash=item5182459431> .
They describe it as being prepared to Lubkin & Carsten's classical formula.
I was wondering whether anyone has information as to how long slides using this mountant will last, and how it compares in performance to DMHF.
Tony

Dr A.G.Irwin
47 The Avenues
Norwich
Norfolk NR2 3PH
England
mobile: +44(0)7880707834
phone: +44(0)1603 453524

On 19 March 2014 16:04, Richard Zander <Richard.Zander at mobot.org<mailto:Richard.Zander at mobot.org>> wrote:
Dan:

Permanent? I don't know any permanent water-soluble mounting medium that has the refractive index of glycerin. If the testae of the amoebas are sturdy, you might try pure Elmer's clear glue. Use copiously, and it should embed the specimen in polyvinyl alcohol.

Richard


____________________________
Richard H. Zander
Missouri Botanical Garden, PO Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299 USA
Web sites: http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/ and http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/bfna/bfnamenu.htm
Evol. Syst.: <http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/EvSy/Intro.htm> http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/EvSy/Intro.htm<http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/EvSy/Intro.htmUPS>
UPS and FedExpr -  Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Blvd, St. Louis MO 63110 USA

________________________________
From: daniel.lahr at gmail.com<mailto:daniel.lahr at gmail.com> [mailto:daniel.lahr at gmail.com<mailto:daniel.lahr at gmail.com>] On Behalf Of Dan Lahr
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2014 10:35 AM
To: Richard Zander
Cc: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu<mailto:taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Water soluble mounting media

Hi Richard,
Thank you for this link, I found the article quite helpful and will try a couple of these.
I have been looking for a water soluble medium for permanent mounting of testate amoeba slides.  Balsam (any kind) is a pain, and the classical Euparal is quite hard to make and recently I have not been able to find all ingredients.  Do you have any recommendations? I noticed you mention glycerin-jelly as semi-permanent, but perhaps in appropriate controlled environment?
Thanks,

Dan

__________________________________
Daniel J. G. Lahr
PhD, Assist. Prof.
Dept of Zoology, Univ. of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Office number: + 55 (11) 3091 0948<tel:%2B%2055%20%2811%29%203091%200948>
http://www.ib.usp.br/zoologia/lahr/
[http://www.ib.usp.br/webmail/assinatura.jpg]

On Sat, Mar 8, 2014 at 3:52 PM, Richard Zander <Richard.Zander at mobot.org<mailto:Richard.Zander at mobot.org><mailto:Richard.Zander at mobot.org<mailto:Richard.Zander at mobot.org>>> wrote:
Those who would like to try a new, simple, nonpoisonous, cheap, reliable mounting medium for microslides might check out my paper in Phytoneuron:

http://www.phytoneuron.net/2014Phytoneuron/32PhytoN-MicroMountingMedia.pdf
or
http://tinyurl.com/nh9lqfd


____________________________
Richard H. Zander
Missouri Botanical Garden, PO Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299 USA
Web sites: http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/ and http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/bfna/bfnamenu.htm
Evol. Syst.: <http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/EvSy/Intro.htm> http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/EvSy/Intro.htm<http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/EvSy/Intro.htmUPS>
UPS and FedExpr -  Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Blvd, St. Louis MO 63110 USA

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Celebrating 27 years of Taxacom in 2014.