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Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry has been used to determine the nature of organic materials used in mummification balms. A comparative analysis of samples taken from Egyptian mummies is developed. The results are given in two parts. First, it is shown that the chemical composition of the balm is practically independent of the part of the mummy from which it is taken. This study was done on a Ptolemaic mummy (circa 100 BC from the Guimet Museum in Lyon). Fats, beeswax, and diterpenic resins were the main components: they were found everywhere. Castor oil was also very often detected (in half of the samples). This particular fat is present in the balm inside the thorax but not in the skull. Moreover it is shown that a vegetable tannin was employed. Components indicative of vegetable tannin input (gallic acid and inositols) were found in seven samples out of eighteen, particularly close to the body and on the canopic pack of the heart. Secondly, some conclusions from a comparative study of the composition of balms from mummies of various social levels as well as of different Egyptian periods are reported. It is shown that beeswax was used as from very early times (XVIIIth dynasty). The mixture of beeswax, fats, and diterpenoid resins would appear to be more recent. The balms of three mummies dating from more recent Egyptian periods (XIXth to XXVth dynasty) were analysed. No evidence of a resin, gum-resin, or plant gum could be found. Some mummies would appear to have been embalmed with fats or beeswax. Finally, the entrails canopic pack said to belong to Ramses II undoubtedly shows an embalming process with a triterpenic resin of the mastic type. The adopted analytical methodology enabled us to achieve simultaneous detection of four components of the balm of the Ptolemaic mummy. Analysis of the other five mummies revealed far less complex chemical compositions for the balms. This may be an indication of different embalming processes, although we should bear in mind the question of organic matter preservation through the ages.

A simple molecular model is associated with an analytical semiempirical potential energy surface and a Wigner representation of the initial conditions of dissociation. This model is used to interpret some experimental data dealing with the dissociation of triatomic negative ions, i.e., the isotope effects and the partitioning of available energy between translational and internal energies of the recoiling fragments.

Ceramides constitute the major group of lipids in the Stratum Corneum where they play a crucial role in maintaining the water permeability barrier of the mammalian epidermis. Cutaneous ceramides are highly heterogeneous in structure. Consequently commercial standards of all these molecules are not available and no simple analytical system supports this magnitude at this time. Our work suggests a strategy, which offers the possibility of having the first simple tool for ceramide structural identification in the absence of a ceramide standard. The ceramide separation is done in NARP (non-aqueous reverse phase) liquid chromatography and the ceramide structural identification in GC/MS (gas chromatography / mass spectrometry). The correlation between these two methods establishes the retention behaviour of ceramides. This retention has been shaped into abacuses. Downloaded by [University of Nebraska, Lincoln] at 09:58 03 January 2015 ORDER REPRINTS 380 GAUDIN ET AL.This approach is based on various theories: the linear progression of t' R in a linear gradient, methylene selectivity and the incrementation on homologous series. This approach by modelisation has the advantage of being completed by iterations each time a new structure is available and without having to carry out the optimisation of the system again.

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