Prof. Dr. (Ban Taha Muhammad), a lecturer in the Department of biology at the College of Education for Pure Sciences at the University of Karbala, obtained a patent as part of a joint work team for her master’s student (Asst. Lect. Alaa Aqil Muhammad) from the Technical College/Musayyib at Al Furat Al Awsat Technical University, in addition to (Prof. Dr. Ibrahim Mardi Radi) and (Prof. Dr. Ali Abdel Abbas Al-Bakri) obtained a patent from the Central Organization for Standardization and Quality Control, to manufacture a paste of nano-silver and nano-zinc for restoring manuscripts and inhibiting fungi. (Manufacture of a Paste of Nano-Silver and Nano-Zinc for the Restoration of Manuscripts and the Inhibition of Fungi) The patent included making a paste of nanomaterials (nano silver and nano-zinc) to inhibit the growth of fungi, which are present on historical manuscripts and using them in the restoration of manuscripts directly, in order to preserve the manuscripts and reduce their growth, after mixing it with the restoration paste in order to preserve the cultural and historical heritage. This study was conducted in the Graduate Studies Laboratory at the College of Education for Pure Sciences at the University of Karbala as part of a series of isolation and identification of fungi accompanying historical manuscripts at the Manuscripts Conservation and Restoration Center and the Care of Researchers for the period from 20/11/2018 to 20/1/2019 in the holy Husseiniya shrine in the city of Karbala . With the aim of preserving the manuscripts and using nano-zinc and nano-silver to control the fungi that cause damage to the manuscripts and describing it as an additive to the restoration paste. The phenotypic characteristics of the fungal colonies growing on the culture medium after treatment with nanomaterials were studied and compared with the control treatment, and the shapes of the microscopic growths were studied under the compound microscope by preparing microscopic slides for all the studied treatments. The manuscripts affected by fungi were treated with these two nanomaterials within the paste prepared for the purpose of restoring and preserving the manuscripts. The culture tests of samples taken from ancient manuscripts after treatment with the restoration material showed that there was a high concentration of 25 mg per liter of zinc nanoparticles and nanosilver separately, by reducing the number of fungi compared to the manuscript before restoration.
