Folch method..

In brief..

A simple method for the preparation of total pure lipide extracts from various tissues is described. The method consists of homogenising the tissue with a 2:1 chloroform-methanol mixture and washing the extract by addition to it of 0.2 its volume of either water or an appropriate salt solution. The resulting mixture separates into two phases. The lower phase is the total pure lipide extract.

2. The washing procedure removes essentially all the non-lipide contaminants from the extract with a concomitant loss of about 0.3 per cent of the tissue lipides in the case of white matter and about 0.6 per cent in the case of grey matter. Even these small losses of lipides can be reduced by the addition of a definite amount of certain mineral salts.

3. The efficiency of the washing procedure depends upon the presence of mineral salts in the crude extract. These salts alter the distribution of lipides and practically eliminate them from the upper phase. In the absence of salts, substantial amounts of acidic lipides are present in the upper phase and would be lost during washing.

Naresh Kumar M

Thank you very much for your useful information.

However, I am a bit curious about using Chloroform-methanol to extract the lipid from cells.

I am using primary hepatocytes which adherent cells. Can Chloroform-methanol detach the cells?

Thanks