Category Archives: botany

Book: “Plant Drug Analysis” – limited copies available

The Book “Plant Drug Analysis” – by H. Wagner & S. Bladt – is currently out of print. But, we’re happy to say that we’ve gotten our hands on a few copies.

Here’s a synopsis:

This paperback second edition of Plant Drug Analysis includes more than 200 updated color photographs of superb quality demonstrating chromatograms of all relevant standard drugs. The atlas will be a useful reference for analyzing plant drugs, identifying unknown drugs or monitoring the purity or constituents of a given drug.

 

Plant Drug Analysis excerpt

All drugs presented meet the standard of the official pharmacopoeia and originate from well-defined botanical sources. With this guide the technique of thin layer chromatography can be easily used without previous pharmacognostic training. Only commercially available equipment and reagents are needed, the sources as well as all practical details are given.

Click here to learn more and to order your copy – there’s only a few copies left!

 

Thin Layer Chromatography used in plant defense research

Anti-herbivore Structures of Paulownia tomentosa: Morphology, Distribution, Chemical Constituents and Changes During Shoot and Leaf Development:

Background and Aims: Recent studies have shown that small structures on plant surfaces serve ecological functions such as resistance against herbivores. The morphology, distribution, chemical composition and changPaulownia tomentosaes during shoot and leaf development of such small structures were examined on Paulownia tomentosa.

Methods: The morphology and distribution of the structures were studied under light microscopy, and their chemical composition was analysed using thin-layer chromatography and high-performance liquid chromatography. To further investigate the function of these structures, several simple field experiments and observations were also conducted.

Click Here to read more.

Celebrating the birth of the father of Chromatography

Mikhail Semyonovich Tsvet was born on this day in 1872.Tsvet

Here’s an excerpt from Discoveries in Medicine about the significance of Tsvet’s work:

The first chromatograph was invented by Russian botanist Mikhail Semenovich Tsvett (1872-1919). While working in Poland, Tsvett was looking for a method of separating a mixture of plant pigments (tints) which are chemically very similar to each other. To isolate different types of chlorophyll, he trickled a mixture of dissolved pigments through a glass tube packed with calcium carbonate powder. As the solution washed downward, each pigment stuck to the powder with a different degree of strength, creating a series of colored bands. Each band of color represented a different substance. Tsvett referred to the colored bands as a chromatogram. He also suggested that the technique (now called adsorption chromatography) could be used to separate colorless substances.

Although Tsvett published a report of his work in the early 1900s, chemists paid very little attention to it. There were a few reasons for ignoring the work. First, the report was written in Russian, which few Western chemists of the time read. Second, the technique may have seemed too simple to chemists who were used to relying on lengthy extraction, crystallization, or distillation processes to separate mixtures. Within a few years, Tsvett’s technique was rediscovered. The rediscovery was by the German organic chemist Richard Martin Willstatter (1872-1942), who was also studying chlorophyll. By introducing chromatography to Western European scientists, Willstatter helped establish one of the most versatile analytical techniques known to chemistry.

Join us today as we honor the work of Mikhail Semyonovich Tsvet