Chemistry Project 2007
ECoS Faculty: Jackie Bortiatynski
ECoS Undergraduate Mentor: Sarah Strass
Plant Pigments
The project focuses on the isolation of plant pigments: chlorophylls, carotenoids, and
favinoids, released during the steaming of green and yellow vegetables. Students will explore the
affect of cooking conditions, i.e. acidity, and cooking times, on the release of these important
nutrients. The students will choose one green and one yellow vegetable for the study as well as a
set of cooking conditions. Then paper, thin layer and column chromatography techniques will be
taught in preparation for the isolation of chlorophylls, carotenoids, and flavinoids from their
vegetable samples. After the students have mastered the chromatography techniques these nutrients
will be isolated from their steamed vegetables. The fractions of chlorophylls, flavinoids, and
carotenoids will be quantified using visible spectrophotometry. The methods developed by this
project will be used to develop an undergraduate laboratory experiment for students in the
introductory organic laboratory course. The following goals have been established for this project:
(1) to gain an understanding of the function and basic structure of some pigments in fruits and
vegetables; (2) to demonstrate how structural differences can be exploited to separate compounds;
(3) to learn the basic techniques of chromatography to separate compounds; (4) to learn how to use
basic color spectrophotometry to quantify compounds in solution; and (5) to utilize the scientific
method to explore a chemical problem.
Powerpoint Presentation