Spinach Research Paper

The main four pigments of spinach consist of chlorophyll, carotene, xanthophyll, and also pheophytin. Carotene consists of colors ranging from yellow-orange to orange. These are known as α-and β-, The difference between these two is the position of the double bonds they contain their outside cyclohexene rings. The rest of the carotene are consistent of methyl groups along with conjugated polyenes which are single and double bonds which alternate through the rings. This is the least polar of the pigments spinach contains because there are not polar functional groups present..Chlorophyll is the blue-green pigment that is found in all plant life chloroplasts. These are recognized in two structures- chlorophyll a and b. These both have a porphyrin ring which is an aromatic structure that holds 26 electrons in a conjugated system.

Also another difference is that Chlorophyll b tends to sit more polar than chlorophyll a. Pheophytin is a grey like pigment which is somehow related to chlorophyll shares very similar properties besides the fact that its porphyrin ring does not consist of an ion within the center instead holds two different protons. Just like chlorophyll, Pheophytin consists of two different structures (pheophytin a, and pheophytin b). Pheophytin a is less polar than its counterpart pheophytin b which is often not visible via TLC. Differences within the porphyrin ring’s centralized atom, pheophytin is less polar than chlorophyll. The last pigment is xanthophyll it can be identified as a yellow colored pigment which is considered the most polar of the four pigments. Xanthophyll has intermolecular forces which are van der waals, dipole-dipole, as well as Hydrogen-bonding interactions this is what separates this pigment from the