[christina]

How do I analyze a HPLC result?

The lab tech injected the sample into the machine and I have the result paper for the sample injected which was caraway oil. However I'm not sure what to do with this now. It was recorded in volts per minutes.

Thank You

[invisiblegs]

Analysis of chromatographic results can depend on what you want or need to know.  At its most basic, chromatography is a method used to separate different chemical species from each other.  The resulting chromatographic trace can thus indicate how pure your sample is by the number and height of peaks present.  Pure samples will generally only have one peak.  Without integration of peak areas, most of the information you can glean from a trace will be qualitative.  Another bit of information that you can take from your sample trace will be the retention time of your product and the relative chromatographic parameters such as column type and size, solvent composition, flow rate, and even temperature.  If you have a chromatogram of a standardized sample of your product, you could compare retention times.  With a set of standard chromatograms at different concentrations, you could generate a calibration curve with the integrated peak heights, and determine exactly how much of your product the TA injected into the machine.  There is a lot of available information in a chromatogram, it just depends on what you need to know.

[christina]

Thanks but all I was given was a drawing on a board which was what the result should look like without numbers. It was just a plain sketch of the line so I guess I just have to say whether there was contamination or not. However since my sample only had one large peak I assume it was pretty pure after distilling the sample of caraway.