Chromatography: Separation Of Leaves Pigment
Tittle: Separation of leaves pigment.
Introduction
The photosynthetic pigment is used to absorb light during the process of photosynthesis. There are five pigments usually found in spinach leaves: Carotene (yellow), Phaeophytin (yellow-grey), Xanthophyll (yellow-brown), Chlorophyll a (blue-green), Chlorophyll b(green). Photosynthetic pigment is located in the chloroplast of the leaf. The function of chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b is to trap red and blue violet light when they carry out photosynthesis, chlorophyll a occurs in green plants while chlorophyll b occurs in green algae.Carotene and Xanthophyll are carotenoid where it can protect the human eye from being harm by light and act as antioxidant thus prevent cardiovascular disease. …show more content…
And the separation of the component can be measured by using the Rf formula:
Rf=
By comparing the Rf value from Table 1 and Table 2, we can find that there is Carotene, Phaeophytin, Xanythophyll, Chlorophyll a and Chlorophyll b present in the spinach leaves. But the Rf value of Chlorophyll b is not similar with the Rf that was calculated. It may be because of the calculations of the distance was done wrongly and therefore affect the Rf value of the Chlorophyll b.
The molecules of carotene are the smallest and they are unsaturated hydrocarbon, thus the solubility of the molecule in organic solvent is the highest, the molecules move the fastest. Phaeophytin has two hydroxyl, it increases the polarity in organic solvent, it is less soluble compare with carotene. Phaeophytin molecule is bigger than carotene molecule and follow by xanthophyll molecule. The size of molecule of chlorophyll is the biggest and it has a hydrophilic ‘head’, thus the diffusion of the molecule is the slowest. Yet, chlorophyll a diffuse faster than chlorophyll
Introduction
The photosynthetic pigment is used to absorb light during the process of photosynthesis. There are five pigments usually found in spinach leaves: Carotene (yellow), Phaeophytin (yellow-grey), Xanthophyll (yellow-brown), Chlorophyll a (blue-green), Chlorophyll b(green). Photosynthetic pigment is located in the chloroplast of the leaf. The function of chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b is to trap red and blue violet light when they carry out photosynthesis, chlorophyll a occurs in green plants while chlorophyll b occurs in green algae.Carotene and Xanthophyll are carotenoid where it can protect the human eye from being harm by light and act as antioxidant thus prevent cardiovascular disease. …show more content…
And the separation of the component can be measured by using the Rf formula:
Rf=
By comparing the Rf value from Table 1 and Table 2, we can find that there is Carotene, Phaeophytin, Xanythophyll, Chlorophyll a and Chlorophyll b present in the spinach leaves. But the Rf value of Chlorophyll b is not similar with the Rf that was calculated. It may be because of the calculations of the distance was done wrongly and therefore affect the Rf value of the Chlorophyll b.
The molecules of carotene are the smallest and they are unsaturated hydrocarbon, thus the solubility of the molecule in organic solvent is the highest, the molecules move the fastest. Phaeophytin has two hydroxyl, it increases the polarity in organic solvent, it is less soluble compare with carotene. Phaeophytin molecule is bigger than carotene molecule and follow by xanthophyll molecule. The size of molecule of chlorophyll is the biggest and it has a hydrophilic ‘head’, thus the diffusion of the molecule is the slowest. Yet, chlorophyll a diffuse faster than chlorophyll