Although you might not be familiar with Chromatography, it has an influence on your daily life. The process is used to find out what materials are composed of by separating compounds in their various components and its usage affects everything from what you eat to the way you fight disease. Chromatography is useful in determining which radicals fight Several diseases and viruses. Researchers used Chromatography in the struggle against the Ebola virus, responsible for over 11,000 deaths, to develop the experimental immunisation ZMapp. The procedure was used to discover which antibodies are the best in neutralising the deadly virus. The 2013 horsemeat scandal, where horsemeat passed off by sellers as beef came into light, highlighted the ineffectiveness of conventional food analysis procedures and positioned chromatography as the frontrunner in determining the contents of processed meat.

The traditional techniques of analysis were capable of determining the composition of raw samples but inconclusive when analysing processed meats so a more exact method was called for. High performance liquid chromatography, along with mass spectrometry HPLC-MS was then successfully utilized to learn if meat that was tagged as beef was beef, horse or a combination of them and several other ingredients. Food is not the only thing you eat which has been tested using chromatography. Many beverages manufacturers use this technique to guarantee each bottle of the product is precisely the same, so that you can count on a consistent flavour. One such brand is Jägermeister that utilizes chromatography to monitor the amount of sugar in their final product.

As chromatography can correctly identify substances within the Bloodstream, it is widely utilized in game to test athletes for doping or performance enhancing drugs, something to consider the next time you are watching your favourite sport. Chromatography is also utilised to help catch offenders. In line with programmes such as CSI, gas chromatography is used to analyse blood and fabric samples, helping to identify offenders and bring them to justice. For Instance, solid-phase Extraction is a sort of what is chromatography where different mobile phases are used in order to separate out various components of a mixture trapped in a solid phase. Chromatography as a purification technique has important roles in petrochemical and other natural chemistry labs, where it may be one of the cheaper strategies to eliminate impurities from natural solutions, especially if the components of the mixture are heat-sensitive.