Hello All, We have one of those unfortunate situations that sometimes arises from temporary technician inconsistency and hindsight. After finishing a number of analyses for macronutrients in some plant samples, we have discovered that some of the samples were properly frozen at -80 before lyophilizing, while others were simply blotted dry and placed in the freeze drier immediately after blotting.
I am concerned about the effects of these differences in our interpretation of protein, carbs, lipids, phenolics and elemental profiles. Does anyone have any unpublished data that can shed any light on this (certainly there is nothing published because it is a failure in normal protocol)? I imagine things like CHN analyses will not be affected, but what about phenolics or macromolecules? Does anyone know how long it will take for a wet sample to actually freeze in a freeze-drier before the water begins sublimating? I would do the test myself, but unfortunately our labs got trashed by the two category 5 hurricanes we had and we don't have an operating freeze-drier at present. Any suggestions will be welcome, Thanks, Edwin ================= Dr. Edwin Cruz-Rivera Associate Professor Department of Biological Sciences University of the Virgin Islands #2 John Brewers Bay St. Thomas 00802 USVI Tel: 1-340-693-1235 Fax: 1-340-693-1385 "It is not the same to hear the devil as to see him coming your way" (Puerto Rican proverb)
