TECHNOLOGY WATCH:

Mass spectrometer helps in tyrian purple research (Laboratory Talk)

Researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK, are using a mass spectrometer from Applied Biosystems to investigate the composition of tyrian purple. This is one of the oldest and most prestigious dyes in the ancient world, and is produced exclusively by hypobranchial gland secretions from different molluscan species. Some 12,000 molluscs were needed to produce enough dye to determine 6,6'dibromoindigo as the major structure of the dye, early in the twentieth century.

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