Benefits of Pairing Complementary Analyses for Soil Phenols and for Soil Amino Acids.

No single method can obtain maximum extraction of soil phenols while preserving the most labile phenols against chemical degradation.  Analyses of soil and plant samples for phenol content by both the more caustic CuO oxide extraction or by the softer tetramethylammonium hydroxide thermochemolysis will be presented to show the complementary knowledge that can be gained through pairing of these approaches.  Similarly, the conventional analysis for amino acids (cation exchange chromatography/ visible light adsorption) appears to over-estimate acidic amino acids and under-estimate basic amino acids compared to analysis by anion exchange chromatography/ pulsed amperometric detection. Analyses of soil and plant samples by both approaches will be presented to show their differences and to suggest a potentially more complete description of N contents through pairing of the two approaches.