A quantitative determination of the plastid pigments in higher plants

The pigments or the plastids belong to two groups: the chlorophylls or green pigments and the carotenoids or yellow pigments. The chlorophyll group can be divided in chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and protochlorophyll and the carotenoid group in carotenes (principally β-carotene) and different xanthophylls. In connection with other research work (light quality and quantity measurements, photosynthesis, ...) it is important to determine the chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, carotene and xanthophyll content. According to this method the chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoid content is determined by a spectrophotometric method after extraction with acetone. The carotenes, after extraction with petroleumether and acetone and after separating from other pigments by column chromatography, are determined from preleminary quantitative spectrophotometric calibrations with synthetic β-carotene. The difference between the carotenoid content and the β-carotene content gives the amount of xanthophylls.