Separation and identification of pigments in green plants

Pigments are naturally occurring dyes that play an important role as photoreceptors in photosynthesis in green plants. They can absorb light and convert it into a photochemical process.
The 11th grade, students examined the pigments in green spinach leaves in their practical course this week. For this purpose, the pigments were extracted from the leaves in the first step and then separated using thin-layer chromatography. The individual pigments were identified by evaluating their band pattern and comparing them with expected patterns in reference literature.