5/6/2020 Extraction of Natural Pigments -- Materials World Modules -- Department of Chemistry

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Extraction of Natural Pigments

Natural Pigments Extraction

Estimated Time 30 minutes

Introduction

The ancient art of dyeing has been used by almost all civilizations of antiquity. Long before the invention of chemical dyes, humanity only used natural sources for obtaining colors. The pleasure of wor
with natural dyes is that it is never bored and always you can find new sources of color.

Extraction is a separation technique used to remove or separate one compound from a mixture. In the case of pigments or inks this method is used to get the desired color from the natural or synthetic
source.

The most common natural pigments are chlorophyll (the green color), beta carotene the (orange color) and lycopene (the red color).

Figure 1. Show the molecules of a,b and d chlorophyll, Beta carotene and Lycopene.

Learning Objectives

Extract the colorfull pigments of the different plants to be analyzed by chromatography. Record the different color composition for every sample.

Image:Flowers PC.PNG Image:Fruits PC.PNG

Materials

1. Fruits, Three Leaves and Flowers

2. Mortar and Pestle

3. Acetone, Ethanol and Water as Solvents

4. Filters and Filter Paper

5. Beakers

Procedures

1. Obtain a mortar and pestle and choose a plant for your extraction.

Image:Mortar and P.PNG

2. Add the plant to the mortar and then crush your plant in the mortar with the pestle.

Image:Motrtar and pestle.png Image:Mortar and Pestle.PNG

3. Crush as much as you can and then add the solvent (Water, Acetone and or Ethanol).

Image:Crushing samples.PNG

4. Filter the extract to remove all non-soluble plant material.

Image:Filtering.PNG

5. Leave the beaker in the hood to evaporate the acetone.

Image:Drying samples.PNG Image:Color pigments.PNG

6. After the acetone evaporation add just the enough acetone to the beaker until have a high concentrated solution.

7. Use the TLC and or the Paper chromatography to separate those pigments using the best solvent as a mobile phase.

Questions

1. What is extraction ?

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5/6/2020 Extraction of Natural Pigments -- Materials World Modules -- Department of Chemistry
2. What are the most common applications of extraction at home?

3. Why is important to make a good election of the solvent?

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