A Portable Device for Sagebrush Fluorescence

Sagebrush and other medicinal plants contain certain chemicals that allow them to fluoresce when placed in a solution and illuminated with ultraviolet (UV) light. With this fluorescence, researchers are able to identify which plants are worth further study. Current field devices do not analyze these traits and are often expensive, so researchers have to go from the field to the lab with samples that may or may not fluoresce, which takes time and resources. By creating a portable darkroom, researchers can quickly identify which samples are worth taking to the lab and increase their data collection rate. The portable darkroom will allow researchers to go into the field, create the sagebrush solution, shine a UV light array onto the solution, and document the solution using a phone camera. Future prototypes will include a built-in camera and wirelessly transfer the photos for a more streamlined process