Protein Separation techniques: General Concepts of Chromatography

In order to analyse different components of a mixture, their separation is necessary. A successful separation needs different separation techniques. There are several physical and chemical methods to separate the different components of a simple mixture but for a complex mixture as, mixture of amino acids or proteins, we need more advanced techniques. Chromatography is the result of advancement of separation and purification techniques. The word Chromatography comes from Greek words chroma chroma "color" and graphein "to write". Literally meaning of Chromatography is "color writing" as initially color of separated component was used for identification. This separation technique credited to a Russian botanist Dr. Michel Tswett (1903). He separated the green plant pigment and showed different components of chlorophyll in form of different colour bands on a CaCO₃ column through adsorption. Likewise Richard Kuhn resolves α and β isomers of carotene and proved the importance of adsorption in analytical field (The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1938) .