The determination of phytoplankton pigments by high-performance liquid chromatography

A simple high-performance liquid Chromatographic method is described for the determination of chlorophylls, chlorophyll degradation products, and carotenoids in phyto-plankton cultures and marine particulate matter. Pigment extraction is carried out with acetone and methanol. After evaporation of the combined extracts under reduced pressure, the pigments are separated on a Partisil-10 stationary phase with a mobile phase consisting of light petroleum (b.p. 60–80°C), acetone, dimethyl sulphoxide and diethylamine(75: 23.25:1.5: 0.25 by volume). When chlorophyll c is present, a further development is performed with a similar, but more polar, solvent mixture. Detection is carried out spectrophotometrically at 440 nm. The method has a sensitivity for the chlorophylls of ca. 80 ng, and for carotene of ca. 5 ng. The coefficient of variation of the Chromatographic stage of the procedure lies in the range 0.6–1.8%.