Dragendorff's reagent
Reactivo de Dragendorff
- Date
- c. 1866 · confidence medium
- Place
- Tartu, Estonia
- Credited to
- Georg Dragendorff
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
A colorimetric reagent for detecting alkaloids in a sample or as a chromatography stain, producing an orange precipitate on reaction with most alkaloids; developed by pharmacologist Georg Dragendorff at the Imperial University of Dorpat.
What it led to
- Became a standard reagent in pharmacognosy and toxicology
- Still used in thin-layer chromatography today
- Basis for forensic and pharmaceutical alkaloid screening