Leaf Chromatography

406 Words2 Pages
In this experiment, chromatography pigment papers are used to test the qualitative pigment in mustard leaves. Green extract of mustard leaves are obtain from grinded by mortar. Mustard leaves wash by acetone before grind by mortar. Acetone is a good solvent for extracting these non-polar pigments from the mustard leaves. As well as some other pigments in smaller amounts. Whether or not it will be able to detect these other pigments will depend on several variable factors. Unfortunately, acetone is miscible (will mix with) with water as well; so acetone extract will also contain a good deal of water. The leaves of plants contain a number of colour pigments generally falling into two categories, chlorophylls and carotenoids. Chlorophylls is the pigments that make plants look…show more content…
These highly conjugated compounds capture the (non-green) light energy used in photosynthesis. Mustard leaves contain chlorophyll a and b and β-carotene as major pigments as well as smaller amounts of other pigments such as xanthophylls; these are oxidized versions of carotenes and phenophytins. In this experiment we will isolate and separate the mustard pigments using differences in polarity to effect the separation. All chromatographic techniques from the mixture, that is to be separated, through a material that retains some components more than others. This cause different component to flow through the material at different speeds, so they separate . Since the different components are colour differently, we can follow this separation visually. When chromatography paper that contains green extract spot is placed on acetone, pigment from extract move out from the spot. This show

More about Leaf Chromatography

Open Document