Is electrophoresis (gel or paper) suitable and efficient as safe separation method to visualize and discard gramine?

[vogo]

Hello, apologies in advance if this might be an unnecessarily complicated and unefficient method of separation and visualization.
I'm looking for insights on people having experience, or recalling relevant publications, about quantitative separation of plant extracts individual components using either agarose gel electrophoresis or paper electrophoresis (or any other method).

I imagine phytochemicals migrating order on different media might be comparable if using the same solvents, but again I wouldn't be too keen to assume without further testing.

Would agarose gel electrophoresis potentially allow for the following?
a. visualize different bands directly in the gel matrix as they migrate from anode to catode, using any non-chemical method (example: UV)
b. slicing away the gel containing the DMT band, with reasonable separation away from the gramine band
c. be inexpensive and efficient (due to the potential reusable agarose gel, by maybe discarding the gramine band for safety, and melting it again), to work with large extraction batches

Thank you

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agarose_gel_electrophoresis

(image source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/paper-electrophoresis)
Book (Paper and thin layer chromatography & electrophoresis, Paper and thin layer chromatography & electrophoresis : Feinberg, Joseph George : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive)

 

[aizoaceous]

I guess it could work, but it's very unlikely to be the easiest option. If gramine is a minor constituent then crystallization will separate it, and that was the case for my P. brachystachys. A solvent system where gramine and your target product had very different solubility or liquid-liquid partition coefficient would be ideal, but that has not yet been identified. In particular, neither naphtha nor limonene are particularly selective per that same link. Flash chromatography would be the default answer in a professional lab, and would probably be easy since gramine is well-separated from DMT and 5-MeO-DMT by TLC.

I believe concern for gramine is generally overstated, and I strongly suspect that most bad experiences with Phalaris are 5-MeO-DMT overdoses. This doesn't mean they weren't serious, and at least one person has died of (probably synthetic) 5-MeO-DMT overdose. Unknown beta-carbolines may also contribute per that linked thread.