Glass leaves!

EQUIPMENTS:

1. Some fresh water

2. Leaves from different plants

3. A saucepan

4. Tweezers or tongs (Can be obtained from a stationary shop)

5. A cup of rubbing alcohol

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Put some water in the saucepan and start to boil it.

2. Now put some leaves in the water and boil it for five to ten minutes.

3. Use a tweezers or tongs to remove the boiled leaves from the water.

4. Then pour the water down the sink.

5. Now fill the saucepan with alcohol in the saucepan and start to boil it.

6. Boil the leaves in the alcohol for ten to fifteen minutes.

7. Now carefully use the tweezers or tongs to remove the boiled leaves from the alcohol.

Transparent Leaf

RESULT:

1. The alcohol should start to turn green while the leaves are being boiled in it.

2. The leaves should be transparent when you remove them from the boiled alcohol.

EXPLANATION:

The plant leaves are green because of a pigment called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll can be found inside the leaves chloroplasts. Chloroplasts are actually an organelle of plant cells. If the chlorophyll is removed from the leaves the green color of the leaves will be gone. To remove the chlorophyll from the plant call the plant cell wall and membrane of the chloroplast is needed to be broken down. Boiling the leaves in the water weakens the plant cell wall and after that boiling those same leaves into the water breaks down the chloroplast membranes. As the leaves are being boiled in the alcohol the liquid starts to become green in color. This color change is caused by the chlorophyll leaking out of the leaves. The rest of the leaf still remains intact. So after removing the boiled leaves from the alcohol it becomes transparent but everything else remains the same.

MORE EXPERIMENTS FOR YOU:

Examine a leaf from this experiment and a regular leaf under the microscope. See if you can find any difference between them.