Separation of Amino Acids by Paper Chromatography

Chromatography is a common technique for separating chemical substances. The prefix “chroma,” which suggests “color,” comes from the fact that some of the earliest applications of chromatography were to separate components of the green pigment, chlorophyll. You may have already used this method to separate the colored components in ink. In this experiment you will use chromatography to separate and identify amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. The proteins of all living things are composed of 20 different amino acids, some of which are described below.