How to Make Chlorophyll in Water
Chlorophyll is an essential plant pigment. Without it, plants would be unable to conduct photosynthesis and produce food. In biology classes, you can easily isolate chlorophyll from spinach or other plant leaves. The two kinds of chlorophyll molecules, chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b, contain two essential organic groups: a methyl, CH3 group, in the case of chlorophyll a, and an oxygen-containing group, CHO, in the case of chlorophyll b. Therefore, an excellent solvent when isolating chlorophyll from spinach leaves is ethanol, which has the chemical formula CH3CH2OH. Wear gloves and safety goggles to protect against splashing.
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Things You'll Need
- Ethanol, 100%
- Latex gloves
- Goggles
- Spinach leaves
- Funnel with fluted filter
- 2 beakers
- Distilled water
Instructions
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Pour 10ml ethanol into a beaker. Shred a leaf of spinach into small pieces and mix it thoroughly with the ethanol until the solution turns green. This takes about five minutes.
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2
Pour the solution over a funnel with a fluted filter to eliminate the spinach.
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3
Allow the solution to evaporate overnight to get rid of the ethanol, then re-suspend the chlorophyll in a solution of distilled water.
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