Identification of chlorophyll pigment on Gracilaria Salicornia seaweed

Gracilaria salicornia is one of the various types of seaweed that can be commercialized because it has the potential as an antioxidant due to its high chlorophyll-a pigment. The purpose of this study is to the identification of chlorophyll compound of G. Salicornia seaweeds. This identification has been carried out using Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) method. Four compounds have been found, namely xanthophyll, chlorophyll b, chlorophyll a, and pheophytin. Xanthophyll was identified with the yellow spot on TLC plates, in which the Rf is 0.55. Chlorophyll b is a yellow-green spot with Rf is 0.60, the Rf of Chlorophyll a is 0,68 with the color blue-green, whereas pheophytin is indicated as a black spot with the Rf 0.73. Chlorophyll a have the maximum wavelength at 430 nm in the blue spectral and 662 nm in the redspectral.