Method of determining plant species with pyrolysis-gas chromatography
View Patent ↗A method of identifying a plant species includes the steps of: preparing a fragment of the plant; heating the fragment to obtain lignin from the fragment; gasifying the lignin at a high temperature to obtain components of the lignin; obtaining a flux profile of the components; and determining the species of the plant.
1. A method of identifying a plant species, comprising the steps of:
gasifying a plurality of reference plant samples over a specific period of time to obtain lignins of the reference plant samples;
obtaining reference flux profiles of the lignins of the reference plant samples with pyrolysis-gas chromatography;
creating a data base correlating the reference plant samples to the reference flux profiles;
preparing a fragment of a plant specimen;
gasifying the fragment at a high temperature to obtain a lignin of the fragment over a specific period of time;
obtaining a flux profile of the lignin with pyrolysis-gas chromatography; and
comparing the flux profile to the reference flux profiles in the data base to determine the species of the plant specimen.
2. The method of identifying a plant species according to claim 1 , wherein, in the step of preparing the fragment, said fragment is obtained from a tissue of the plant specimen.
3. The method of identifying a plant species according to claim 1 , wherein said fragment includes powder or has a size of 2-3 mm.
4. The method of identifying a plant species according to claim 1 , wherein, in the step of obtaining the flux profile, said flux profile includes time-based spectrum data of flux quantities of the lignin.
5. The method of identifying a plant species according to claim 1 , wherein, in the step of comparing the flux profile, said flux profile is digitally processed before being compared with the database.
6. The method of identifying a plant species according to claim 1 , wherein, in the step of gasifying the fragment, said gasification is performed at a temperature of 150° C. to 190° C.
7. The method of identifying a plant species according to claim 1 , wherein, in the step of preparing a fragment of a plant specimen, said plant specimen is dried until moisture content thereof becomes 10% or less.
8. The method of identifying a plant species according to claim 1 , wherein, in the step of preparing a fragment of a plant specimen, said fragment has a weight of 10 to 100 mg.
9. The method of identifying a plant species according to claim 2 , wherein said tissue includes a leaf, a stem, or a root.
10. The method of identifying a plant species according to claim 1 , wherein, in the step of preparing a fragment of a plant specimen, said fragment is spread to form a thin film.