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.