Patent ID: 7947506

Claim:
A method of staining at least one protein, the method comprising providing a composition comprising at least one of compounds #2, #3, #4, #5 and modifications thereof in an effective concentration and benzaldehyde, to a protein under conditions sufficient for binding the compound to the protein, and detecting the protein-bound compound, where wherein the modification adds a hydrophobic group selected from the group consisting of (a) at least one of a hydrophobic non-sulfonated compound, hydrophobic alkyl chains, a hydrophobic mono-sulfonated compound, a di-sulfonated compound, or a tri-sulfonated compound; (b) an N substituted hydroxyquinolone ring, the N substitution selected from at least one of alkylsulfonate, H, or a C 1 -C 10 hydrocarbon; (c) an alkylsulfonate substituted for at least one of N in the indole ring or sulfonate substituted C in the benzene ring; (d) at least one C 4 -C 10 hydrocarbons on N attached in a 7-position to the benzene ring of the hydroxyquinolone; (e) 7-N,N-di-hexylamine attached to the hydroxyl-hydroxyquinolone ring or hydrophobic alkyl chains; and combinations thereof, and where detecting the protein-bound compound results in a qualitative and/or quantitative enhanced determination of the at least one protein over determination in the absence of the excipient.