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20 páginas.- 10 figuras.- 2 tablas.- 59 referencias.- Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-022-04573-y, Papyrus, produced from the white pith of Cyperus papyrus L., has been used for millennia as the major writing support by ancient cultures, but there was no continuous papyrus production until modern times. Therefore, papyrus production had to be rediscovered. Modern Egyptian papyrus producers claim that their sheets possess 'the same physical and chemical properties as ancient papyri'. To study if this is accurate, commercially available papyrus sheets were compared to ancient papyri and papyri produced according to Pliny's historic description. Material characterization was performed with a focus on the potentially color-bearing lignin. Two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, derivatization followed by reductive cleavage, and pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry were complemented with microscopy and tests for surface pH and sodium content. The lignin data in the native pith and commercial sheets were compared to 10 ancient samples from the Papyrus Museum Vienna. The analytical data clearly show the involvement of a strong alkaline treatment followed by chlorine bleaching for commercial papyri, as expressed by higher pH values, altered lignin structures, and chlorinated lignin compounds. The inclusion of an alkaline step in ancient papyrus manufacture is discussed but dismissed, since the alkali-treatment causes a huge decrease in lignin content, that was not found for the analysed ancient specimen. We assume that this additional treatment was introduced to obtain yellowish papyrus sheets meeting optical expectations of modern spectators. Linguistic and art historic evidence indicates that such a step would not have made sense in antiquity, since it was desired to produce white papyri., Open access funding provided by University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU). The authors acknowledge the financial support from the Austrian Biorefinery Centre Tulln (ABCT), the County of Lower Austria, the Spanish State Research Agency, the European Regional Development Fund (project AGL2017-83036-R) and the Junta de Andalucia (project P20-00017).

11 páginas.- 6 figuras.- 5 tablas.- 57 referencias, Papyrus (Cyperus papyrus L.) is a plant with high productivity rate that is considered an interesting raw material for obtaining biofuels and biomaterials. In the present work, the composition and structural features of the lignins present in the rind and pith of papyrus culms have been studied. The analyses revealed that the lignins from both parts of papyrus culms differed greatly not only in their contents but also in composition and structure. In the rind, the lignin represented up to 27.0% (dry-matter) and was composed mainly of G-units (H:G:S composition of 4:63:33), while the lignin in the pith (15.7% dry-matter) presented a slightly higher amount of S-units (H:G:S composition of 8:43:49). These lignins also presented considerable amounts of cinnamates (p-coumarates and ferulates) incorporated. The differences in composition influenced the content of the lignin inter-unit linkages. Thus, the rind lignin presented lower amounts of β–O–4′ ether linkages (77% of all identified linkages) and higher content of condensed structures, such as phenylcoumarans (15%), resinols (2%), dibenzodioxocins (3%), and spirodienones (2%), while the pith lignin contained more β–O–4′ ethers (85% of all identified linkages) and lower amounts of phenylcoumarans (11%), tetrahydrofurans (2%), and spirodienones (2%). Moreover, 2D NMR analyses revealed that the lignins from papyrus were highly acylated at the γ-OH (40% acylation in the rind, and 60% acylation in the pith). DFRC analyses proved that p-coumarates were the main acylating groups, and that they were predominantly acylating the S-lignin units. Finally, the analyses also showed the presence of important amounts of the flavanone tricin in the rind lignin and, at lower amounts, in the pith lignin. © 2021 The Authors, This work was partially funded by the Spanish Project AGL2017-83036-R (financed by Agencia Estatal de Investigación, AEI and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional, FEDER) and by Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades, Junta de Andalucía, Spain (project P20_00017). MJR thanks the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities for a FPI fellowship (PRE2018-083267). FB, TR, and AP were funded by the Austrian Biorefinery Center Tulln (ABCT).

9 páginas.- 4 figuras.- 1 tabla.- 27 referencias, Papyri belong to the oldest writing grounds in history. Their conservation is of the highest importance in preserving our cultural heritage, which is best achieved based on an extensive knowledge of the materials’ constituents to choose a tailored conservation approach. Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) has been widely employed to quantify cellulose and lignin in papyrus sheets, yielding reported lignin contents of 25% to 40%. In this work, the TGA method conventionally used for papyrus samples was repeated and compared to other lignin determination approaches (Klason-lignin and acetyl bromide-soluble lignin). TGA can lead to a large overestimation of the lignin content of commercial papyrus sheets (~27%) compared to the other methods (~5%). A similar overestimation of the lignin content was found for the pith and rind of the native papyrus plant. We concluded that the TGA method should, therefore, not be used for lignin quantification., Funding by the Austrian Biorefinery Center Tulln (ABCT) and the County of Lower Austria is greatly acknowledged. J.C.d.R., J.R. and M.J.R were funded by the Spanish State Research Agency and the European Regional Development Fund (project AGL2017-83036-R), and by the Junta de Andalucía (project P20-00017).