pH of phenol/chloroform/isoamyl alcohol

[Winoto lab]

In article <30jq2a$m4f at tamsun.tamu.edu>
acc4636 at tamsun.tamu.edu (Anthony C.) writes:

> I normally buy phenol/chloroform/isoamyl alcohol ph 8 from boehringer
> mannheim (spelling?) for RNA extractions from mammalian tissue.
> They are having production problems so I need to get it from another
> source now the other companies all advertise a 6-7 pH form with 
> buffer included to equilibrate it at pH8.  They make it sound tho
> like the as is form is tris buffer at pH 8 with the phenol at ph 6.7
> now this doesnt really seem possible but then Im not all that great
> with chemistry, so for my RNA extractions is a phenol ph 8 buffer ph 8
> what I need?  Thanks!

Anthony,

Go ahead and use the phenol you described as a substitute.  I use it
all the time for RNA and DNA isolation.  It works just fine, and yes
the additional buffer will equilibrate the phenol to pH 7.6-8.0.  

Excelsior!
Pendragon