Hello Zahra

This reference contains the methods I have used in the past!

Eaton, A. and M. Franson (2005). Standard methods for the examination of water & wastewater, Amer Public Health Assn.

Hope it helps!

Travis

Hi Zahra,

in one step you won't separate chlorophyll from carotinoides. But the good news is you can "destroy" the chlorophylls by alkaline hydrolysis. We typically use our pigment extract in 80% acetone and add 50% volume of 1 M KOH solution shake (or vortex) the solution for several minutes at room temperature. This procedure releases the phytol chain from chlorophyll resulting in chlorophyllide which is far more polar than chlorophyll.

By this means you can use a less polar solvent say petroleum ether or hexane for solvent extraction of carotinoides by shaking - you can collect the upper phase containing just carotinoides (the chlorophyllides will go in the lower phase).

Have fun!

Lars

Howdy Zahra,

In biology classes we proceed as follows:

http://www.biologyjunction.com/chromatography_plant_pigments.htm

With destructive methods it's gonna be hard to determine the absorption spectra of the chlorophylls you have extracted. I guess, you are interested in those as well no? For example to determine the chorophyll/carotenoid ratio. Don't throw away information by destroying it. 

Cheers,

Frank