Plant Pigments & Photosynthesis

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Study plant chromatography - safely and easily! Masked by green chlorophyll in the summer, the abundance or pigments in plant leaves becomes highly conspicuous each fall. As the falling temperatures and changing light conditions cause the chlorophyll to break down, the differences in the types and amounts of the pigments provide the visible color variations. These plant pigments can be separated using a technique called paper chromatography. Through this process, the pigments migrate on a specially treated paper, with each pigment’s migration rate dependent upon its solubility and degree of attraction to the paper. Many commercially available kits use acetone as the solvent, but this innovative investigation uses a safer alcohol solution. Your class can now safely use chromatography to separate plant pigments, identify them by color and position on the chromatograph and relate them to their role in photosynthesis. Grades 5-12.