Holzschutzmittel und Verfahren zum Holzschutz

NOVELTY - A wood protecting composition contains animal blood serum and a metal salt. Protection of wood against Basidiomycetes involves treatment with an animal blood serum-metal complex. DETAILED DESCRIPTION - A wood protecting composition contains 80-99.5 wt.% animal blood serum (preferably of foodstuff quality and especially obtained from bovine or porcine whole blood) and 0.5-20 (preferably 0.6-4) wt.% metal salt selected from salts of iron, copper and/or aluminum. (N.B. In a dependent claim and in the disclosure the metal salt is selected from salts of titanium, vanadium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, aluminum, molybdenum and/or silver). An INDEPENDENT CLAIM relates to a method for the prophylactic protection of wood against degradation and decomposition by Basidiomycetes without contact with soil, by treating the wood with an animal blood-metal complex (no specific metals given). USE - The compositions are active as antifungal wood protectants. The weight loss w as determined on incubation of pine sapwood samples for 4 weeks with the wood-rotting fungus Serpula lacrimans or Gloeophylium sepiarum. For incubation with S. lacimans at 20 deg. C the loss was 5.7% for an untreated control and 0.6% for a sample treated with serum plus 1% copper sulfate. For incubation with G. sepiarum at 23 deg. C, the corresponding values were 19.7% and 0%. ADVANTAGE - The protectant is inexpensive, non-toxic and non-carcinogenic; and can be prepared from animal blood (readily available in large amounts) without energy consumption, environmental contamination or residue disposal problems. The serum and metal form a complex which has an excellent protective effect; forms a homogeneous layer which is firmly fixed to the wood matrix and resistant to leaching with water; and causes little discolouration of the wood.