I would like to predict the structure of melanin produced by my organism.What all data needed for elucidating the structure ?.Is there any software for structure prediction of polymers like melanin ?
You may use UV-Vis (since melanin produce color) as basic tool, then IR to predict functional groups such as carbonyl, NH, unsaturation present, aromatiticity. Also to find fragmentation mass spectrometry can be sued, NMR is another tool you can use.
Thanks Prabhu..I have all these data with me.How I can predict the structure from it.Is there any tools available ?
This is an extremely hard task, as even a strict definition of the "melanin structure" does not exist. I can only recommend a perfect paper on this topic, where you can find all the methods used so far to understand what on Earth "the structure of melanin" is.
Meredith, Sarna. "The physical and chemical properties of melanin", Pigment Cell Melanoma Res 2006, 19, 572-594.
You can check with CFTRI, Mysore. I have heard that they have a software, where it takes raw data and gives all possible structures of the molecules, which you can compare with standards (if your product obtained is pure, then you can match with the standard one). I do not have the exact name of the software. Check if you know somebody there or randomly you call and findout they can help you. All the best.
If your sample is pure, you can identify your structure by using spectroscopic methods i.e GCMS, IR, UV, NMR (1D and 2D). Workout all the data, proposed the structure and double check your proposed structure with software i.e chem draw. Good luck
You can use UV-VIS, HPLC, FT-IR, GLC, 1HNMR, C-NMR. GCMS. You can also compare your data with data available in the literature.
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