degradation of plant compound - (Mar/18/2006 )

if a plant is collected and was kept for some time for the purpose of study, will the plant compound degrade and thus not showing the property it originally has when tested?thanks.

Depends on the compound and method of storage, for example most proteins will degrade over time if stored at room temperautre, but will keep indefinitely at -80 degrees C.

Bob

o, thanks. the samples are dried leaves. if so, will compounds be lost?

Yup, proteins and RNA mostly gone, DNA should still be OK, cellulose is obviously still OK, but I can't comment about other cellular materials such as cyanins.

Cheers,
Bob

hi, im working on glutathione and phytochelatins. so far ive processed fresh samples only because im afraid of protein degradation. anyway, in the future, i might have to resort to long-term storage. is -80 the minimum temp at which proteins wont degrade? or is -40 or even -20 okay? thanks!