You can use acetone or nail polish remover.

Yes! It will work with plastic cups! For sure! The funnest part is collecting and destroying the leaves, I just did this with my 4 year old. So fun!

Hi Anndi,
That’s a great question!
We have not tried those materials, but we would love to hear how it goes if you end up trying it!
Hope it’s wonderful!
Warmly,
Ashley // Happiness Ambassador

Hi Clair,
We have not tried this with vinegar, but we do believe rubbing alcohol will give you the best results.
Let me know if I can be of any further help!
Warmly,
Ashley // Happiness Ambassador

Hi Stacey,

I have not done chromatography with alcohol and hot water mixed together. The alcohol is the solvent that helps dissolve the pigments so they separate, allowing you to see them. Water isn’t a good solvent for the pigments so if you mix water with alcohol it will most likely slow the process. You can see this when yang 95% vs 70% isopropyl alcohol as your solvent. They both work but the 70% alcohol is noticeably slower. Perhaps placing the cups with the pigment/alcohol mix in a crock pot of hot water would help keep little hands out and provide a buffer against the heat? I probably would have done this too if not for needing a clear photo of what we were doing. Hope this helps!

Hi Roza,
I hope that you’re able to try it. Maybe you’ll be able to find some different plants that naturally have different colored leaves.
We’d love to hear how it goes!
Warmly,
Ashley // Happiness Ambassador

This experiment sounds really great and i would really like to try it. we however live in a tropical climate, not sure we can find leaves of so many different colors.

Hi Joan,
It looks like my explanation needed a few more well placed words! You are correct it’s only the anthocyanins that are made in the fall and I tried to explain that but it didn’t come through. Thanks for pointing that out. I’ll have to edit that. Good catch!

Love this~ thanks for sharing~I plan on doing this with my Kindergarten
class 🙂