Issue 16, 2024

Identification and quantification of pigments in plant leaves using thin layer chromatography-Raman spectroscopy (TLC-Raman)

Abstract

Carotenoids are yellow, orange, and red pigments commonly found in plants. In leaves, these molecules are essential for photosynthesis, but they also play a major role in plant growth and development. Efficiently monitoring concentrations of specific carotenoids in plant tissues could help to explain plant responses to environmental stressors, infection and disease, fertilization, and other conditions. Previously, Raman methods have been used to demonstrate a correlation between plant fitness and the carotenoid content of leaves. Due to solvatochromatic effects and structural similarities within the carotenoid family, current Raman spectroscopy techniques struggle to assign signals to specific carotenoids with certainty, complicating the determination of amounts of individual carotenoids present in a sample. In this work, we use thin layer chromatography-Raman spectroscopy, or TLC-Raman, to identify and quantify carotenoids extracted from tomato leaves. These quick and accurate methods could be applied to study the relationship between pigment content and a number of factors affecting plant health.

Graphical abstract: Identification and quantification of pigments in plant leaves using thin layer chromatography-Raman spectroscopy (TLC-Raman)

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Jan 2024
Accepted
19 Mar 2024
First published
21 Mar 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Anal. Methods, 2024,16, 2449-2455

Identification and quantification of pigments in plant leaves using thin layer chromatography-Raman spectroscopy (TLC-Raman)

T. D. Payne, L. R. Dixon, F. C. Schmidt, J. J. Blakeslee, A. E. Bennett and Z. D. Schultz, Anal. Methods, 2024, 16, 2449 DOI: 10.1039/D4AY00082J

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