| Summary: | The study of the biochemical diversity or organisms as an aid to their taxonomic and phylogenetic classification is a comparatively recent innovation in biology. Since there are many natural chemical constituents present in plants which may be used in systematic studies many techniques for their analysis have been devised. The advent of paper chromatography in 1944, followed by the development of such techniques as electrophoresis, thin layer chromatography and gas chromatography, which enables the separation of a wide range of compounds in a relatively short time, has removed the difficulty of isolating many biochemical compounds which had been the main drawback to this type of study in the past.
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