Colleagues, I am currently working on a project studying the toxicological effect of an n-Hexane fraction of a herbal extract using a clonogenic assay. However, I'm encountering difficulties as the herbal fraction does not dissolve in the cell broth, preventing me from measuring any cell toxicity effects. I have attempted different solvents, but each has presented its own challenges. n-Hexane placed upper the broth and evaporated quickly, Chloroform formed an insoluble hemisphere under the broth, and Acetone resulted in color dots at the bottom of the well and counting errors. Can anyone suggest alternative methods or solutions to overcome this issue? Your assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you."
The fraction of my herb consists entirely of non-polar compounds that did not dissolve in DMSO.
Thank you for your attention. Brian Lee
This is a problem of trying to put non-polar compounds of the extract into a polar cell broth. Solvents alone are not the way to go. Consider derivatizing the compounds, conjugating them with a sugar, or encasing them in liposomes that would be taken up by the cells. I have no lab experience with these methods, so am not a good source for these techniques.
Thank you, dear Brian.
In this experiment, I wanna measure the effect of the pure herbal fraction. Conjugation with sugar or making a new drug delivery system changes important pharmaco-toxicologic properties for me.
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