Comparative methods for chlorophyll detection in leaves

Abstract

Population growth puts an increasing pressure on the agriculture, so progressive field crops practice requires modern, reliable and cost efficient methods to monitor crop development and yield. The chlorophyll plant leaves content is the most common and used biochemical parameter for the plant physiological monitoring such as, the dynamic processes of growth, metabolism, reproduction and defense. Our paper aims to analyze the chlorophyll content by comparing two methods, optical method vs classical spectrometric detection method. A comparison between a quick and cost-effective screening method using portable CCM-200 plus (Opti-Science, Inc) and a more laborious and time consuming biochemical chlorophyll extraction method. The chlorophyll concentration data was obtained from terrestrial plants such as marigold (Calendula officinalis) and wheat (Triticum sp.). Chlorophyll pigments have had a non-uniform distribution on the leaves surface, thus the concentration differs during the day lengthy, and this induces variation for the optical measurements. In this study, we optimized the optical measurement of chlorophyll pigments by a mathematical correlation of the optical chlorophyll content conversion to absolute chlorophyll. The relationships between the CCM-200 plus measurements and the values obtained for the absolute chlorophyll concentration, as well as the chlorophyll a/b ratio, suggested a wide range of relationships between the two species.