spectroscopy amd phytochemicals

[SlyStudent]

Hello,

Looking for information on where to start experimenting with home spectroscopy.
<p style=”padding-left: 40px;”>Where do you start?😁</p>

[Dr. Patrick JonesHomestead Instructor]

Spectroscopy is the study of refracted light and color. Did you mean spectrophotometry (which is a chemical analysis method)? If so, you’d have to buy a spectrophotometer which probably isn’t very realistic for home use.

Don't use herbs or combine herbs with medications or use them during lactation or pregnancy without talking with your healthcare provider.

[SlyStudentTopic Author]

Hi Doc!

Sure spectrophotometry, that sounds about right.
You got me interested after you mentioned in one of your videos that some one in your family had access to a mass spectromete and you were interested to see if letting a tincture sit for two weeks would actually produce a stronger menstrum… something like that. We never did get an answer to that by the way!

Im interested in learning a little bit more about it even if i never do it. How do they tell what chemicals are in plants.. that’s the question. I understand a bit about how they get pharmaceuticals by purifying everything else out till they get one chemical but wouldn’t it be interesting to have the ability to see what was in a plant that there is not much research on?
Sure you could do it the old fashioned way and give them to your dog and if he lives then take some yourself… but as a mushroom hunter we have an old saying ” There are old mushroom hunters and bold mushroom hunters, but no old bold mushroom hunters”
The technology that is available to the intrigued at home is pretty good now. Amazon has Spectrophotometers starting at around $250 and ebay is full of used lab equipment for $600 and up.

The problem is im not finding much on spectrophotometry for phytochemicals

Maybe im asking the wrong question… how do they find out what chemicals are in plants?

[Dr. Patrick JonesHomestead Instructor]

I don’t think anything you could buy on Amazon is going to have the capability of finding unknowns. You’d need an expensive lab machine for that.

Don't use herbs or combine herbs with medications or use them during lactation or pregnancy without talking with your healthcare provider.

[Lisabeth SeverinStudent]

I have to confess now, I’m intrigued. I wonder how well those $250 spectrophotometers do?

I can buy an at home soil test kit for relatively little money, but it only tells me soil PH and what the major nutrients of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are. And (I know this because I bought a really affordable one) each time I did the test on the soil from the same 1″ of land, I got kinda different results. So I was never really sure what was going on.

I’d really like to have an electron microscope, but I’m pretty sure I’m never going to get one. Unless I win big in the lottery or something.

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Sly

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