The extracts are ethanolic and methanolic. I tried a partition with petroleum ether and hexane with very poor results. I need any faster technique than the column chromatography, The extracts are very green and I would like to decrease the intensity of green color.
You can perform a paper chromatography. To elaborate the method, you need only the chromatography paper, the suitable solvent (usually a mixture of petroleum ether with propanol, analogy 100 : 1) and a very small amount of sample extract.
The method is quite fast (10-15 min) and the separation of the photosynthetic pigments (carotenoids, chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b) is very efficient.
And finally, you can cut the pigment zones from the chromatogram and extract them separately for further pigment investigation.
At the link below you can see a fast forward paper chromatography
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6jD0hJO-28
The column chromatography has been invented by Mikhail Tsvet. He used a liquid-adsorption column containing calcium carbonate to separate yellow, orange, and green plant pigments (what are known today as xanthophylls, carotenes, and chlorophylls, respectively). I believe that the column chromatography remains the best option
for removing of chloropylls, you can use a decantor with Hexan and methanol solvent. Chloropylls go to hexan fraction. also after that you can use colum chromatography with petroleum ether for removing the chlorophlls.
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