Very often poor OD 260/230 ratios are caused with column purifications because the guanidine salts are not completely washed away and these absorb at 230 giving a high od230 so a low 260/230 ratio. Try not to overload the column and include a second column wash step after binding the rna in order to wash away the chaotrophic binding salts

You can try another protocol for RNA extraction, and RNA purification technique

Paul Rutland For one of the methods I was trying, I eluted the RNA from gel using a NaOAc solution and then precipitated using ethanol. The ratio was pretty low even without the use of column. I tried purifying this with column afterwards in the hope that the ratio increases, however, it was still low.

Henry Kolge I have tried multiple elution buffers, including (but not limited to):

1. NaOAc

2. NaOAc, glycogen

3. NH4OAc, KCl

I also tried incubating the gel with the elution buffer at different temperatures ranging from 4 to 37 degrees Celsius.

To remove this impurity from RNA extracted from gel electrophoresis, you can try the following methods:

A low A260/230 ratio may not necessarily indicate the presence of linear polyacrylamide, and other contaminants or interfering substances such as residual salts or organic solvents can also affect the ratio. Therefore, it's important to check the purity and integrity of RNA samples by running them on a gel or using a bioanalyzer or spectrophotometer before using them for downstream applications.

These video playlists might be helpful to you:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzBiAPKi8vOPbE7Db9mKwloe34E8rXXEU

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzBiAPKi8vONSqjcweFWHMRy13y3484bE

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzBiAPKi8vOMheKwb0mu1dcZRaeGUFSlw