Method for chemical analysis of biological material

The instant invention is in the field of methods for chemical analysis of biological material and more specifically the instant invention is in the field of methods for determining chemically related differences between subject biological material and control biological material by way of separation techniques such as chromatography. A chemical analysis method for determining chemically related differences between subject biological material such as genetically modified plant material and control biological material such as genetically unmodified plant material, which method includes at least the following six steps. The first step is to contact the subject biological material with a fluid extractant, such as a mixture of water, isopropanol and potassium hydroxide, to produce a fluid extract of the subject biological material. The second step is to contact the control biological material with the fluid extractant to produce a fluid extract of the control biological material. The third step is to chromatograph the fluid extract of the subject biological material, for example, gas or fluid chromatography, to produce a chromatogram of the fluid extract of the subject biological material. The fourth step is to chromatograph the fluid extract of the control biological material to produce a chromatogram of the fluid extract of the control biological material. The fifth step is to determine the differences between the chromatograms, for example, by using the method of U.S. Pat. No. 5,592,402, to identify at least one outlier peak. The sixth step is to determine the chemical identity of the outlier peak, for example, using gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy analysis of the outlier peak.