ARS | Publication request: SPECTRAL DECONVOLUTION OF FLUORESCENCE SPECTRA FROM PLANT EXTRACTS

Submitted to: American Chemical Society Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: June 1, 2002
Publication Date: July 28, 2002
Citation: DANIELSON, T.L., RAYSON, G.D., ANDERSON, D.M., ESTELL, R.E., FREDRICKSON, E.L., HAVSTAD, K.M. SPECTRAL DECONVOLUTION OF FLUORESCENCE SPECTRA FROM PLANT EXTRACTS. 44TH ROCKY MOUNTAIN CONFERENCE ON ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 2002. PAPER NO. 134.

Technical Abstract: Fluorescence emission spectra have been observed to yield information pertaining to the identification of plant species. One approach to acquiring these characteristic spectra has been to record the spectral signature resulting from an extract of the plant. Often these spectra have been overwhelmed by the fluorescence from chlorophyll species. In an effort to acquire spectral information from less ubiquitous molecular species, plant samples have been extracted using phosphate buffered saline solutions. This has resulted in the acquisition of emission spectra from 370 to 620 nm in the absence of the red chlorophyll fluorescence. The combination of fluorescent and absorbing molecular species extracted from each sample of plant material provides an identifying spectral signature. Variation in solution pH has also been found to provide yet another dimension to the total fluorescence response surface. The results of a study of six plants common to the northern Chihuahuan Desert will be presented. The implications of these findings on the development of a fluorescence-based technique for the identification of plants from pre- and post-digestive samples will also be discussed.