Tsvet also spelled Tsvett or Tswett
born May 14, 1872, Asti, Italy
died June 26, 1919, Voronezh, Russian S.F.S.R.
Italian-born Russian botanist and chemist.
He is credited with the discovery (in 1903) and application of chromatography . In 1910 he described how he extracted plant pigment s with ether and alcohol and percolated the solution through columns of calcium carbonate or powdered sugar; the different pigments appeared as separate coloured bands. Tsvet discovered several new chlorophyll s and coined the words chromatography and carotenoid . His work was not discovered by mainstream Western scientists for nearly 30 years.