Round-filter chromatography

Circular or round-filter chromatography is a qualitative picture forming method, also referenced as the Chroma test, developed in 1953 by Ehrenfried Pfeiffer (1899-1961) for the research on soil and compost.

The origins of this approach go back a century earlier to the work of Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge (1794 – 1867) who already developed the first circular filter chromatogram tests called 'Runge pictures' around 1850-55, describing them as sample pictures to show the formative processes of substances (in German: Musterbilder, Bildungstrieb der Stoffe).

In this method, extracts are absorbed from a central wick through horizontal filter paper previously impregnated with a silver nitrate reagent.

This easy-to-use form of round-filter paper chromatography is used for the assessment of the intrinsic 'quality' of soils, composts, plants and food-stuffs, whereby it gives insight into the life processes of these soils, composts and plants.

The Chroma test provides a graphical, pictorial representation of the effect of life processes and the working of the etheric formative forces in mineral substances. The chroma(togram) can provide insight into processes that cannot be directly seen visually or measured with data recording equipment (such as microscopes andanalytical methods), and thus act as a memory carriers for these life processes in nature, that cannot be measured or logged as scalar data.

Round-filter chromatography belongs to the category of picture or image forming methods, together with:

• 01 - Capillary dynamolysis - rising picture method
• 02 - Sensitive crystallization
• 03 - Round-filter chromatography
• 04 - Drop picture method

.

For a general introduction, see Scientific research into the etheric formative forces#2016 - Barry Lia

and more in general on the same topic page: Scientific research into the etheric formative forces

Aspects

• applications: chroma test images are used to show the presence, form and condition of sustances in mineral physical matter,
  • foods
    • its composition and richness in vitamins and vital substances
  • plants
  • soils or composts
    • the diversity of a soil or compost
    • its ability to store nutrients, to transform organic matter into humus (and thus hold it in the soil)
    • its ability to deal with polluting substances and/or to detoxify toxic substances
    • example applications:
      • development and optimization of methods of compost preparation, tillage, green manuring, and compost application
  • generically
    • origin of a state (and ways to a necessary or desired change)
    • the degree of internal order of an organism
• functioning principle:
  • substances that are extracted from soil, plants or food with the help of a weak alkaline solution are applied to a round filter disc previously treated with a silver nitrate solution. The patterns and shapes that become visible on the filter disc are a result of the molecular composition of the substrate, the reaction of the extract with the filter paper and the etheric formative forces acting in soils, composts or plants that create the shapes on the paper.
  • reading and interpretation: "in order to learn how to interpret chromatograms, one must first produce comparative images of known, precisely definable substances or preparations, so-called standards, in order to compare the unknown images found with them" (Ehrenfried Pfeiffer 1959)
• other names: Chroma method or Chroma test, Pfeiffer-Lübke test, circular chromatography or also Pfeiffer Circular Chromatography Method (PCM)
• the work of the Uta und Siegfried Lübke (or Luebke) and family who furthered this test (which is therefore sometimes referenced as the Pfeiffer-Lübke test) - see Further reading section below
  • use the circular chromatogram technique developed by Dr. Pfeiffer to evaluate the humus condition of soils and composts
  • Luebke compost (also: 'Controlled Microbial Compost')
• see also: Sensitive crystallisation

Related pages

• Scientific research into the etheric formative forces
• Sensitive crystallization
• Capillary dynamolysis - rising picture method
• Drop picture method

References and further reading

• Ehrenfried Pfeiffer:
  • Eine qualitativ chromatographische Methode zur Bestimmung biologischer Werte (Parts I and II) (1959)
  • Chromatographische Untersuchungen an Samen, Mehlen, Hefen und deren Produkten (1960, article)
  • 'Chromatography Applied to Quality Testing' (1984)
• Günther Harsch, Heinz H. Bussmas: 'Bilder, die sich selber malen. Der Chemiker Runge und seine „Musterbilder für Freunde des Schönen“ (1985)
  • for more info on the work of Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge (1794 – 1867)
• Helmut Voitl, Elisabeth Guggenberger: Der Chroma-Boden-Test (1986)
  • this is the main book on this test (181 pages)
• D. Bangert, D. : 'Zu den naturwissenschaftlichen Grundlagen des Chroma-Boden-Testes als bildschaffende Methode (1994)
• Jörgen Beckmann: 'Konzepte zum Chroma-Boden-Test nach Pfeiffer: Vorstellung einer Konzeption zur Auswertung der Chromatogramme' (1994)
• Nicola Hassold-Piezunka: Eignung des Chroma-Bodentests zur bestimmung von Kompastqualität und Rottegrad (2003, Ph. D thesis - available in PDF on internet)
• Uwe Geier, Lothar Seitz: 'Bildoptimum und Bildtypen im Rundfilterchromatogramm (Chroma) bei der Untersuchung von Pflanzen' (2006, article)
• Sebastiano Pinheiro: Cartilha da saude do solo - Cromatografia de Pfeiffer (2011)
• Jairo Restrepo Rivera, Sebastião Pinheiro: Cromatografia. (2011)
• Alberto Lozano Sierra: 'Die Methodik des Chroma-Tests' (2015 - PDF available on internet)
• Maria Olga Kokornaczyk, Fabio Primavera, Roberto Luneia, Stephan Baumgartner, Lucietta Bett: 'Analysis of soils by means of Pfeiffer’s circular chromatography test and comparison to chemical analysis results' (2016 paper)
• Livia Bischof Pian: Chromatography of Pfeiffer: Principles, method and use in perception of soils (2017 - PDF download here)

More

see also: Scientific research into the etheric formative forces#Picture forming methods

Various internet

• Urs Hildebrandt (in DE): landmanagement.net/en/chromatographie/
• Company in Switzerland www.bionika.ch/