[virus_freak]

I got a lab to do and a part of it is to w\extract the colour pigment from a leaf.1.
1.Will alcohol work?
2.will i have to use it with moderation since it is my solvent being used for the extraction?

[gingerbread_girl]

Hi, you should put the leaf in boiled alcohol...but be careful, the boiling point of pure alcohol is very low. So it would be best to first boil the alcohol and then put the leaf in and then systematically turn down the heat

[cliverlong]

I vaguely remember the following method

1. Boil the leaves for a few minutes in water not alcohol
2. Cut the leaves up and crush them in a pestle and mortar

The point of 1 and 2 is to break the cell walls in the leaves and get at the chloroplasts

3. Add alcohol to the pestle and mortar and keep on crushin'

Slowly, slowly a green liquid will come out and this will contain chlorophyll (and some other things) on which you can perform chromatography

The risk of fire from boiling the alcohol over an "open" flame  is high , I would suggest, unless very carefully controlled - so I wouldn't recommend it.