Rapid detection of chlorophyll-a reduction in tropical fruit leaves using violet laser

Abstract

Chlorophyll is an important substance in photosynthesis process. Chlorophyll turns CO2 and water into energy required by trees. Detection of chlorophyll in leaves and trees will give us much information, such as chlorophyll quantity and quality. In this paper, we present a simple, yet powerful technique to observe chlorophyll-a degradation in tropical fruit leaves. We conducted experiment on mango, mangosteen, noni, jackfruit and rambutan leaves. We excited fresh leaves using violet (wavelength at 420 nm)laser and detected chlorophyll emission spectra. We found that there were noticeable differences among chlorophyll spectra from 5 leaves. We analyzed chlorophyll peak wavelength and intensity. We also observed time dependence chlorophyll emission upon continuous excitation to study chlorophyll degradation.