Popularization
11 August 2014
Alexis St-Gelais – Popularization The first part of this series dealt with the principles of separation of volatile molecules upon analysis by GC. After their separation, the analyst has yet to be able to detect molecules as they leave the capillary column, either to identify or quantify them. At PhytoChemia, we mainly use two types
Popularization
4 August 2014
Alexis St-Gelais – Popularization Many of the samples we analyze are sent to us directly as essential oils. However, sometimes a customer wishes to compare plants before their extraction. He may also need a measure of oil yield so that he can plan ahead larger extractions. In these cases, we use two main extraction techniques, each with
Activities and Events
15 July 2014
Alexis St-Gelais – News and events Laboratoire PhytoChemia emits most of its reports as electronic documents. A printed and manually signed version of your reports is available upon request. However, your PDFs can now have the same legal value as paper thanks to a digital signature system. As of July 2014, all of the PDF
Popularization
30 June 2014
Alexis St-Gelais – Popularization I have explained in a previous post the main theoretical principles of chromatography. Today, I will detail one of its practical applications, widely used by PhytoChemia: gas chromatography (GC). It lends itself to the analysis of volatile molecules – that is to say molecules capable of passing to gas phase at
Research notes
17 June 2014
Alexis St-Gelais – Research Notes Two batches of young male flowers of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) were submitted to hydrodiffusion. The resulting hydrosol was analysed by gaz chromatography. The main constituents of sample #1 were 1,2-cyclohexanedione, characteristic of poplars, as well as benzyl alcohol and benzoic acid, while sample #2 was dominated by benzyl benzoate.
Popularization
30 May 2014
Alexis St-Gelais – Popularization Chromatography refers to a wide range of separation techniques, frequently used in the field of analytical chemistry . The principles of chromatography allow PhytoChemia to achieve several of its analyzes. Chromatography is, for every chemist working in organic chemistry, a valuable tool. It brings together all techniques used for separating mixtures of
Popularization
24 January 2014
Hubert Marceau – Popularization Figure 1: A. ursinum (source) In 2004, in the canton of Neufchâtel, Switzerland, clients from a restaurant who ordered fish with a bear’s garlic sauce, Allium ursinum (Figure 1), went on a painful adventure. Shortly after eating they started to have severe gastrointestinal troubles. After analysis, it was found that the sauce contained colchicine, a toxic alkaloid.