Week 6 – Spring Break!

I didn’t get as much work done as I’d liked over spring break, but long story short I spent time waiting on chemicals and trying to stain the plant leaves, both of which did not go well. I found a protocol online that stained mint leaves using Sudan Red, and I figured that I could use Neutral Red since they are similar and I had already made a bunch of Neutral Red. However, when I stained the leaves overnight, I could barely see anything stained under the microscope, especially on the surface of the leaf. Much of the dye had run into the little ridges and caused dark red dots in that section, but it was difficult to visualize if there was anything there.

On a brighter note, my internal standard (S-perillaldehyde) came so I’m currently trying to make a calibration curve for it using the GC-MS. The limonene is much more volatile than the internal standard, so I’ve been trying to find a good concentration to put into the machine and get clean results.