Category Archives: lipids

Thin Layer Chromatography helps in discovering new fat over lunch

We are firm believers in inspiration and solutions coming to us at any place and any time – so we were happy to see this story:

Scientists discover new fat over lunch

Uncovering new fats, or lipids, with links to diseases in the human eye is as easy as taking a lunch break, according to UOW chemists from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology.Dr. Blanksby

The research, conducted by UOW Associate Professor Stephen Blanksby and his PhD student Shane Ellis, used ozone naturally present in laboratory air to find previously unknown lipids in the human lens. Their work was featured as a hot article in a recent edition of the scientific journal, Analyst.

“My lunch breaks are never unproductive,” according to Shane.

….

Using a combination of two methods called desorption electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry (DESI) and thin layer chromatography (TLC) that the group combined specifically for these experiments, lipids can be characterised in one simple analysis, a significant improvement on older methods.

Click Here to read the complete article.

We tip our hats to Professor Blanksby and Mr. Ellis.

Separation of Lipids via Thin Layer Chromatography

This post comes to us from “Biochem write up”

Intro:
The aim of this practical is to carry out TLC in which the substances we wish to separate are absorbed onto the thin layer. Lipids are determined by isolation and the ability to purify the substance. Due to the way the substances interact with the matrix in different ways we are able to seperate them. Substances which interact strongly with the matrix but not with the solvent will move very slowly and those soluble in the solvent will dissolve easily and be carried along the solvent.
thin layer chromatography phospholipids
Egg yolk contains trioleine, cholesterol palmitate and phosphatidylethonolamine, The most polar of the three elements is the second element. It hardly moves up the TLC because of the presence of several polar groups; phosphate groups, amine groups and several oxygens , and cholesterol palmitate being the most non polar.