Long term chloroform: isoamyl alcohol treatment ensured removal of chlorophyll and other colouring substances such as pigments, dyes etc. that hinder the quality of DNA. The popular CTAB method (Doyle & Doyle, 1990) which focused on the removal of polyphenolics and/or polysaccharides, often neglected the importance of eliminating RNA. Many DNA isolation procedures also yielded large amounts of RNA