tswett experiment

Mikhail Tsvet – the Father of Chromatography

Mikhail Semyonovich Tsvet (1872–1919)

On June 26 , 1919 , Russian-Italian botanist Mikhail Semyonovich Tsvet passed away. Tsvet is credited with the invention of the adsorption chromatography , separating plant pigments by extracting them from leaves with ether and alcohol and percolating the solution through a column of calcium carbonate .

Mikhail Tsvet – Youth and Education

Mikhail Tsvet was born 14 May 1872 in Asti , Italy. His mother was Italian, and his father was a Russian official. His mother died soon after his birth, and he was raised in Geneva , Switzerland. He received his B.S. degree from the Department of Physics and Mathematics at the University of Geneva in 1893. However, he decided to dedicate himself to botany, published his first scientific work on plant anatomy, which received the Davy Prize in 1894, and received his Ph.D. degree in 1896 for his doctoral dissertation “ Études de physiologie cellylaire ”, a work on cell physiology.

He moved to Saint Petersburg , Russia, in 1896 because his father was recalled from the foreign service. There he started to work at the Biological Laboratory of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His Geneva degrees were not recognized in Russia, and he had to earn Russian degrees. In 1897 he became a teacher of botany courses for women and in 1901 he received a degree from the University of Kazan with his second doctoral thesis on “ The Physicochemical Structure of the Chlorophyll Grain “.[1,2].

Plant Physiology, First World War, and Death

The invention of cromatography.

Tsvet began his research at a time when the data and methods of chemistry and physics were becoming more widely used for the discovery of the nature of the life processes. This aided the establishment of plant physiology as an independent science in the mid-19th century and, toward the end of the century, contributed to the formation within plant physiology of such areas of research as cytophysiology.[2] Mikhail Tsvet invented chromatography in 1900 during his research on plant pigments . Tsvet had managed to separate a mixture of plant pigments, including chlorophyll, on a column packed with finely ground calcium carbonate, using petroleum ether as the mobile phase. As the colored mixture passed down the column, it separated into individual colored bands (the term chromatography comes from the Greek words chroma, meaning color, and graphein, meaning writing, or drawing).[4] Tsvet continued to work with chromatography in the first decade of the 20th century, primarily for the separation of plant pigments such as chlorophyll, carotenes, and xanthophylls . Since these components have different colors (green, orange, and yellow, respectively) they gave the technique its name. New types of chromatography developed during the 1930s and 1940s made the technique useful for many separation processes.

Popularization of Cromatography

References and Further Reading

• [1] Mikhail Semyonovich Tsvet , Russian botanist, at Britannica Online
• [2] “ Tsvet (or Tswett), Mikhail Semenovich. ” Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 2008. Encyclopedia.com.
• [3] Leslie S. Ettre: M.S. Tswett and the Invention of Chromatography , in LC-GC Europe September 2003, pp-2–7.
• [4] Chromatography – The Development Of Chromatography , at science.jrank.com
• [5]  Mikhail Semyonovich Tsvet at Wikidata
• [6]  R. Willstätter, A. Stoll, Untersuchungen über Chlorophyll , Springer, Berlin (1913)
• [7]  Mikhail S. Tsvet: Physical chemical studies on chlorophyll adsorptions  Berichte der Deutschen botanischen Gesellschaft 24, 316–323 (1906)
• [8] Dave Carlson,  The 3 Types of Chromatography ,  PremedHQ Science Academy  @ youtube
• [9]  Mikhail S. Tsvet: Physical chemical studies on chlorophyll adsorptions   Berichte der Deutschen botanischen Gesellschaft 24, 316–323 (1906)
• [10] Timeline of 19th century Botanists , via DBpedia and Wikidata

Harald Sack

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Oct 29 2014

The Botanist that discovered chromatography

Although perhaps not the most well-known of scientists, it was Mikhail Tsvet’s research into plant pigments which led him to invent chromatography in 1903.

Born in Italy of Russian descent in 1872, Mikhail Semyonovish Tsvet spent his early life studying botany. Despite gaining a Ph. D in botany from the University of Geneva in 1896, his doctorate was not recognised in Russia so he completed a degree from the University of Kazan, Russia in 1901.

It was Tsvet’s passion for botany and desire to understand plant pigments which led him to devise a separation technique known as adsorption chromatography. This involved using ether and alcohol to extract plant pigments, then percolating the resulting solution through a column of calcium carbonate. Tsvet discovered that the different pigments appeared as different coloured bands. At this time it was believed that plants had only two pigments, chlorophyll and xanthophyll, but Tsvet was able to establish that there were two forms of chlorophyll as well as eight additional pigments.

In 1902 Tsvet was appointed laboratory assistant at the University of Warsaw, but he left in 1908 to take up a position teaching microbiology and botany at the Warsaw Technical University. By 1917 Tsvet was working at the (Tartu) University of Estonia as Director of the Botanical garden, which was evacuated to Voronezh in 1918. 

Chromatography in the modern world

Despite being discovered by Tsvet in 1903, chromatography was largely ignored for many years. This was partly due to fact that Tsvet had only published in Russian, the events in Russia at the start of the 20th century and an article refuting Tsvet's findings.

In 1942 AJP Martin and RLM Synge investigated the theoretical rationale behind chromatography which separate components of a mixture by having relative amounts of each solute distributed between the mobile phase, a moving fluid stream and a stationary phase.  They later received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work.  

AJP Martin collaborated with AT James in 1952 and discovered that the liquid in the mobile phase could be replaced. The discovery of gas-liquid chromatography was a huge step forward. It meant that the mobile phase could be liquid or gas and the stationary phase either solid or liquid. Apart from allowing the vaporization of large molecules it also meant that the resulting separated compounds were extremely pure.

In comparison with other separation techniques such as crystallisation, distillation or solvent extraction, chromatography can be used to separate all the compounds of a multi-component mixture without knowing in advance the quantities and nature of the chemicals present.  Its ability to analyse both complex and comparatively simple mixtures make it extremely versatile and it can be used identify traces of substances as small as a pictogram. 

Today, chromatography is widely used in biochemical research for the detection of chlorinated pesticides in biological materials, in forensic science, in the detection of therapeutic drugs and in the petroleum industry to analyse complex mixtures of hydrocarbons.

Sadly, Tsvet died in from chronic inflammation of the throat in 1919, without seeing the impact his discovery had on other fields of research.

If you are eager to explore more information about chromatography, you may enjoy these articles, What are the Different Types of Chromatography Techniques? and Why is Chromatography Called Chromatography?

Image Source:  Mikhail Tsvet

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M. S. Tswett and the discovery of chromatography I: Early work (1899–1903)

• Published: February 1993
• Volume 35 , pages 223–231, ( 1993 )

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• L. S. Ettre 1 &
• K. I. Sakodynskii 2  

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On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Warsaw lecture of M. S. Tswett representing the first report on the chromatographic technique, this two-part article outlines the evolution of the method. This part deals with Tswett's early work in 1899–1901 and his research in 1901–1903 leading to the lecture at Warsaw. The second part will deal with the fundamental twin papers of 1906, with his book of 1910, summarizing all his activities related to the investigation of plant pigments and to the development of chromatography, and with a few special questions related to Tswett's scientific activities in this field.

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Ettre, L.S., Sakodynskii, K.I. M. S. Tswett and the discovery of chromatography I: Early work (1899–1903). Chromatographia 35 , 223–231 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02269707

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Received : 09 September 1992

Revised : 17 October 1992

Accepted : 26 October 1992

Issue Date : February 1993

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02269707

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