The Home Scientist 022 - Testing for Alkaloids with Dragendorff Reagent

Using Dragendorff Reagent to detect the presence of alkaloids at extremely low concentrations.
Make up Dragendorff Reagent as follows:
1. Dissolve 0.4 g of bismuth subnitrate in about 10 mL of concentrated hydrochloric acid.
2. Dissolve about 5.0 g of potassium iodide in about 50 mL of distilled or deionized water.
3. Pour the bismuth subnitrate solution into the potassium iodide solution.
4. Make up the solution to 100 mL with distilled or deionized water and transfer to a storage bottle labeled Dragendorff Reagent.
If you're unable to obtain bismuth subnitrate, you can use the following alternative procedure to make up a usable solution of Dragendorff's Reagent from Pepto-Bismol tablets or the generic equivalent. These tablets contain 262 mg of bismuth subsalicylate per tablet, which is equivalent in bismuth mass to about 212 mg of bismuth subnitrate. We can therefore substitute two Pepto-Bismol tablets for the 0.4 g of bismuth subnitrate. This alternative method isn't pretty, but it does use readily available materials and it does work.
1. Transfer two Pepto-Bismol tablets and about 20 mL of water to a beaker.
2. Swirl the beaker until the tablets have broken up into powder. Bismuth subsalicylate and the binders used in the tablets are both very insoluble in water, so don't be concerned if it looks as though none of the powder has dissolved.
3. Add about 10 mL of concentrated hydrochloric acid to the beaker. Swirl the beaker occasionally until foaming ceases. At this point, the liquid appears chalky white.
4. Allow the contents of the beaker to settle. Most of the solid matter precipitates, but enough remains suspended to give the liquid a cloudy white appearance.
5. Filter or carefully decant the liquid into a second beaker to remove as much as possible of the undissolved solids.
6. Dissolve about 7.0 g of potassium iodide in a few mL of water and transfer that solution to the beaker that contains the bismuth solution. The solution immediately assumes a yellow-brown, cloudy appearance.
7. Bring up the volume in the beaker to about 100 mL with distilled water, allow the solid material to settle, and then pour off the clear yellow-brown solution into a storage bottle labeled Dragendorff Reagent.

Пікірлер: 27

  • @BrotherBloat
    @BrotherBloat14 жыл бұрын

    very interesting stuff - I like the new intro, nice one KK and THS! :)

  • @Caesarke
    @Caesarke13 жыл бұрын

    Great video,,and thank you for outlining the risks of performing such test@ home its better to be safe than sorry.

  • @sikidiki22
    @sikidiki2214 жыл бұрын

    Ignore all the people telling you to shorten the intro, Microwave show has a pretty long intro and this one is cool, nicely edited as well keep up the good work, im no scientist but i enjoy watching your videos anways

  • @Rufruf-ey1uf
    @Rufruf-ey1uf5 жыл бұрын

    Hello.how can i extract ephedrins alkaloid from ephedra plants?thank you

  • @douro20
    @douro2013 жыл бұрын

    It may be possible to do an even more sensitive test using a colorimetric analyzer, such as LaMotte's Smart colorimeter.

  • @petrickcarlos6317
    @petrickcarlos63177 жыл бұрын

    how do you do such a impress opening????

  • @mohammedhassanelhaw5359
    @mohammedhassanelhaw53599 жыл бұрын

    i want to show use of dragndorff as spry reagent in TLC IN SEPRATION OF ALKALOIDS THINKS

  • @WinstMart
    @WinstMart14 жыл бұрын

    @eveningniteshade I dont know how you would seperate the various other Nious compounds from the root tho...

  • @Elektrochemistry
    @Elektrochemistry10 жыл бұрын

    This is a nice video with a proper description, it does make sense what he is doing. Just a question: if you perform a test to check whether a plant contains alkaloids or not, would it not form a precipitate with phosphate or chlorides - like AgNO3 ?

  • @Oli-jm9fc

    @Oli-jm9fc

    7 жыл бұрын

    no

  • @alriyadhasan4176
    @alriyadhasan41766 жыл бұрын

    Thankyou sir

  • @lajimenezmejia
    @lajimenezmejia9 жыл бұрын

    i would use lugol instead of KI(potassium iodide)

  • @altosax1st
    @altosax1st14 жыл бұрын

    Where does one acquire chemicals needed for this experiment that is not usually found in homes?

  • @Canonpixmalogitechko
    @Canonpixmalogitechko14 жыл бұрын

    I wonder if you could used this method for testing for muscarine and muscimol in amanita muscaria?

  • @WinstMart
    @WinstMart14 жыл бұрын

    @eveningniteshade I just tested the "84%" kavalactone paste from kona kava using dragendorff rgnt and regardless of weather it had pipermethystine it clearly did NOT react... mkes sense the kavalactones arent nitrogenous so i think you could. Also note: 84% kavalactone paste with Marquis: maroon/ brown with Froede is red to black

  • @mjweed420
    @mjweed42013 жыл бұрын

    im no chemist but lets say i wanted to extract alkaloids from the roots of a burdock plant for an anti inflammatory or say take the roots of a cannabis sativa and make a pain relief cream how would go by doing that, i know most alkaloids are poorly soluble in water but im guessing they dissolve more or less in a acidic solution. not sure what i would use though

  • @atari7001

    @atari7001

    6 жыл бұрын

    I've heard that citric acid works well

  • @keywestskoko
    @keywestskoko13 жыл бұрын

    I'm interested in your comment, "These tablets contain 262 mg of bismuth subsalicylate per tablet, which is equivalent in bismuth mass to about 212 mg of bismuth subnitrate." Can you walk me through the math that leads you to that conclusion.

  • @Oli-jm9fc

    @Oli-jm9fc

    7 жыл бұрын

    [0.262 g Bi subsalicylate / its molar mass (362.1 g/mol) ] * molar mass of Bi subnitrate

  • @Serostern
    @Serostern14 жыл бұрын

    Intro is a tad too long. 20sec would be better.

  • @twostringguitar
    @twostringguitar14 жыл бұрын

    30 second intro? Try for less than seventeen.

  • @glenwoofit
    @glenwoofit14 жыл бұрын

    Having intros gets annoying when your watching alot ot vids

  • @smokescreen1163

    @smokescreen1163

    7 жыл бұрын

    glenwoofit 6 years ago

  • @pudidotdk
    @pudidotdk14 жыл бұрын

    As already mentioned, intro is too long

  • @fazleemonty9126
    @fazleemonty91266 жыл бұрын

    mostly you're just mumbling than explaining. please make clearer in terms of your speech