Week 5 – Glandular Trichome Testing

While the beads did work at grinding the leaves, it seemed to make a big mess (it also seemed to have pulverized the resin), so my advisor wanted me to try taping the leaves to remove the glandular trichomes. Glandular trichomes are found on the surface of a leaf, and previous literature has shown methods of using scotch tape to remove glandular trichomes from other organisms. I tried doing that, but didn’t get much success, so I’m currently trying to stain my leaves so I can see the glandular trichomes on the leaves and confirm that they actually exist.

For the GC-MS, my advisor placed an order for an internal standard, and I am waiting for it to come so I can start making my calibration curve so that I am able to find the concentration of my volatiles.