BOTANY120 POSTLABORATORY REPORT:

Light Absorption in Shade

and Sun Plants
Beray,
Brandon
Relucio, Mike
Tumolva, Kim
Wong,

Introduction
Light is a small segment of an
electromagnetic radiation spectrum
The process of photosynthesis is the only
biological process that harvest or absorb
this form of energy (Taiz and
Zeigler.1991)
The mesophyll of the leaves is the most
active photosynthetic tissue in the plants
since they contain the light absorbing
green pigments specifically chlorophyll a

Electromagnetic spectrum

Chlorophyll a absorbs only some red and blue

light

Chlorophyllaabsorbs light
in the blue-violet region,
chlorophyllbabsorbs redblue light, and
bothaandb reflect green
light (which is why
chlorophyll appears
green). Carotenoids
absorb light in the bluegreen and violet region
and reflect the longer
yellow, red, and orange
wavelengths; these
pigments also dispose
excess energy out of
thecell

shows as to where wavelengths are the plant most

effective in powering the photosynthetic reactions

Materials and Method

Two syringes, spectrometer,
micropipette, mortar and pestle,
funnel, filter paper, 10% bleach
solution, ethanol, and 0.3g sun and
shaded leaves each.

Materials and Methods

Leaves are grinded into tiny bits with 10
ml bleach solution
20 ml of bleach solution was added
Filter
2 ml of the filtrate was collected in a
syringe
Absorbance of the filtrate was read
using a spectrophotometer from 400 to
700 nm with 20nm intervals

Analysis of Light Absorption

in Shade Grown and Sun
Grown Plants Using
Spectrophotometry
Discussion

Chlorophyll Extraction, Dilution

and Transmittance
Extraction- use of ethanol
Dilution and Calibration
Transmittance

T= I/I0

Absorbance

A = 2 - log10
%T

Spectrophotometric
Analysis of Sun and Shade
Plants

Figure 1. Absorption Spectra of Plant Pigments

Table 1. Absorbance in shade and sun plant

Absorbance
Wavelength (nm)
700
680
660
640
620
600
580
560
540
520
500
480
460
440
420
400

Shade Plant
0.058
0.517
1.52
0.633
0.511
0.416
0.3
0.21
0.173
0.16
0.352
1.773
2.3223
2.53
2.339
2.259

Sun plant
0.068
0.096
0.161
0.091
0.092
0.087
0.0844
0.0811
0.083
0.086
0.109
0.234
0.271
0.39
0.379
0.326

Figures a and b. Graph of absorbance versus wavelength in

sun and shade plants

Sun plants
less elaborate light harvesting
complexes thus lesser absorption as
seen in the graphs
more electron carriers despite their
less elaborate light harvesting
complexes

Shade Plants
more efficient light absorption due to
their more elaborate light harvesting
complexes
favourable to them since they grow
in areas where light exposure is low
smaller complement of electron
carriers, since they are limited on the
number of photons falling on the leaf

Why are plants

green?
Chlorophyll a does not
absorb light in the
green part of the
spectrum
Light in the spectrum is
reflected

Note:
Plants do not depend
only on chlorophyll a
in their light
harvesting machinery
but also have other
pigments (accessory
pigments)which
absorb light of
different wavelengths.