Hi Shricharan,

I am not an expert on isolation RNA from fruit peels, however I have done a lot of RNA isolation from other material and in my experience the RNA pellet can be gel-like and more or less translucent if you have really clean RNA

So you might have sucessfully isolated RNA.

Sometimes it can be difficult the dissolve this pellet in water, especially when the pellet is to dry. To dissolve the pellet in water

1. avoid overdrying of the pellet

2. after adding the water incubate for 10-15 min at 60°C (if you don't do this already)

However, you might also look up what is recommend by ThermoFisher (in case you are working with TRizol or a similar reagent) for samples with high content of polysaccharides in their FAQs:

https://www.thermofisher.com/order/catalog/product/de/de/15596026

I hope this is helpful!

I've encountered a similar issue when working with RNA extraction from fruit peels and other high-polysaccharide, high-phenolic tissues. The jelly-like, translucent pellet you're seeing is often due to co-precipitation of polysaccharides and secondary metabolites, which interfere with both solubility and downstream applications. Mango peel is especially challenging due to its complex matrix of tannins, mucilage, and phenolics that tightly associate with nucleic acids.

A few things that have worked for me:

• PVP (polyvinylpyrrolidone, ~1–2%) in the extraction buffer helps bind polyphenols early in the process.
• High-salt CTAB buffers (with 2M NaCl) can reduce polysaccharide contamination.
• An additional chloroform:isoamyl alcohol wash (1:1 or 24:1) post-phase separation can help clean up the lysate further.
• LiCl precipitation (instead of ethanol) is particularly helpful for selectively precipitating RNA while leaving behind carbohydrates.

When the pellet still appears jelly-like, I find that a brief proteinase K or RNase-free DNase I digestion before a re-precipitation step improves solubility and purity. Also, warming the RNase-free water to ~55°C during resuspension can help dissolve stubborn pellets more efficiently.

For consistent performance, especially with phenol-rich tissues, choosing high-grade reagents makes a noticeable difference. Suppliers like Sigma-Aldrich, Thermo Fisher, and BOC Sciences offer CTAB-based kits, PVP reagents, and customized RNA extraction-grade chemicals.

Hope this helps!