Question

Grind the spinach leaves in small quantity of acetone / nail paint remover. Mix the contents properly and filter with filter paper in test tube. Test tube contains green filtrate. Take the test tube in dark-room and put a flash of torch on it. Now, solution appears red. Why does this occur? Which phenomenon is this? Discuss this with your physics, chemistry and biology teachers.

Answer 1

Chlorophyll is the green pigment present in chloroplast. It absorbs light in red and blue region of visible spectrum. It does not absorb green light and thus the green light is reflected which is why it appears green. In this experiment, the chlorophyll in test tube appears red when a flash torch is put on it in the dark room.

This is because when the electrons of the chlorophyll molecule are excited in dark in the absence of electron transport chain the electrons release their energy in the form of red light as they return to ground state. This phenomenon observed here is transmission of light.