Biochemical Techniques and Instrumentation

Identification of Amino acids in Fish by Paper Chromatography

Chromatography is the most powerful technique to separate chemically related substances into the individual components on the basis of their partition coefficients between two immiscible phases. The stationery phase may be a solid or liquid while the mobile phase may be a solid, liquid or gas. Depending upon the stationery and mobile phases, a variety of chromatographic techniques are available. They include chromatography on paper, thin layer gel, ion – exchange resin etc. Paper chromatography is an easy technique that can be set up even in an ordinary laboratory without much expenditure. Calvin and his associates used paper chromatography to elucidate the pathway of carbon dioxide fixation in photosynthesis. The separation, identification and (semi) quantification of amino acids, sugars, organic acids, etc can be made by this technique by changing the mobile phase and detection (spray) agents.