The. separation and identification of pigments, chlorophylls and carotenoids, of several teas by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were described. HPLC was carried out using a Symmetry Cs column with a photodiode array detection. Pigments were eluted with a binary gradient of aqueous pyridine solution at a flow rate of 1.0 ml per min at 25°C. HPLC analyses archived the separation of...

African eggplants (Solanum aethiopicum and S. macrocarpon) are among the most economically important and valuable vegetable and fruit crops. They are a major source of biologically active nutritional substances and metabolites which are essential for plant growth, development, stress adaptation and defense. Among these metabolites are the carotenoids which act as accessory pigments for photosyn...

Chloroplast thylakoid membranes isolated in the presence of EDTA retain high rates of O(2) evolution (>/=340 mumol.h(-1).mg chlorophyll(-1)) but contain no Mn(2+) that is detectable by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) at room temperature. The total Mn(2+) content of these preparations is 4.6 per 400 chlorophylls; 0.6 Mn(2+) can be released by addition of Ca(2+), a treatment that does not a...

Nickel and cadmium are heavy metals with some hazards for plant metabolism. The impacts of nickel chloride (0, 400 and 800 μM) in the presence of vitamin B complex (0, 30 and 60 ml from pharmacy commercial stock) and the impacts of cadmium chloride (0, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600 μl from 100 µM stock) in pot and cadmium nitrate (0, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 and 3200 μl from 100 µM stock) in ...

When light energy absorbed by plants becomes excessive relative to the capacity of photosynthesis, the xanthophyll violaxanthin is reversibly deepoxidized to zeaxanthin (violaxanthin cycle). The protective function of this phenomenon was investigated in a mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana, npq1, that has no functional violaxanthin deepoxidase. Two major consequences of the npq1 mutation are the ab...

We report a new device for the estimation of the content of chlorophyll a pigment in water samples as an indicator of water quality. The extraction of the pigment from water was also optimized. 10 mL of water was filtered through a nylon filter (45 microm pore size and 13 mm of diameter), after the chlorophylls were dissolved by immersing the filter in 1 mL of a low non-hazardous solvent as eth...