Determination of lacquer contained in samples of cultural relics by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

As an environmentally friendly natural polymer material, lacquer is durable, anti-bacterial, corrosion-resistant and decorative. In China, the use of lacquer has a long history. Traditional methods of detecting lacquer target on urushiol, however, are highly influenced by impurities and cannot detect traces of lacquer in samples of cultural relics. In this study, we attempted to detect lacquer using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) after extracting and purifying glycoprotein from lacquer sap and obtained a specific anti-lacquer polyclonal antibody. Our experimental results showed that ELISA was highly effective, specific, and could detect traces of lacquer without being affected by impurities. This method was also applied to the detection of lacquerware cultural relics.