The Achilles heel of sophisticated instrumentation in pheromone research

Quite a few young workers in India are now keen on doing research in chemical ecology/ethology. This is a good choice, because, in our country we have a wealth of fauna and flora to choose from for research. However, lack of expensive, sophisticated apparatus is a well-known hindrance to our researc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current science (Bangalore) 2013-09, Vol.105 (6), p.751-751
Main Author: Brahmachary, R. L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
CORRESPONDENCE
Pheromones
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Quite a few young workers in India are now keen on doing research in chemical ecology/ethology. This is a good choice, because, in our country we have a wealth of fauna and flora to choose from for research. However, lack of expensive, sophisticated apparatus is a well-known hindrance to our research. For lack of a gas chromatography mass spectroscopy (GCMS) column in which dichloromethane can be used, we missed certain molecules while studying the body odour of wild tigers super(1). One wistfully thinks of the good old time around 1950 when the worthwhile discovery of the 'cat spot' was possible with a simple technique super(2). In the span of 20 years my colleagues and I have traced 40 odd compounds as putative candidates for tiger pheromone. But at one fell swoop, Burger et al. super(3) have now detected a hundred odd compounds!.
ISSN:0011-3891