Polyphenolic compounds as spray reagents in inorganic paper chromatography-Part II

Abstract

A study of 9 compounds belonging to 4 different groups of polyphenols: 3-phenyl-4-hydroxycoumarins, aurones, xanthones and desoxybenzoins shows that 5 of them: 3-phenyl-4,5,7-trihydroxycoumarin, 4,5,7-trihydroxy-3-(p-methoxyphenyl)coumarin, 4,5,7-trihydroxy-3-(3',4'-methylenedioxyphenyl)coumarin, 4,6-dihydroxyaurone and 4,6-dihydroxy-3',4'-dimethoxyaurone act as sensitive and widely applicable chromatographic spray reagents for the detection of metal ions in paper chromatography. The sensitivity limits determined for these 5 reagents establish that they are even better reagents than the ones commonly used for this purpose. The 2 aurone derivatives are better than the 3 coumarin ones.