Table 2.

Summary of advantages and disadvantages of the main NAE methods. GuSCN, guanidine thiocyanate; CsCl, cesium chloride; EtBr, ethidium bromide; CTAB, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide.

Method	Advantage	Disadvantage	Reference
(1) GuSCN-phenol- chloroform extraction	High purity and yield of DNA or RNA	Hazardous chemicals	[21, 23]
(2) Alkaline extraction	Fastest, reliable, and relatively easy procedure	Medium purity and fragmentation of genomic DNA	[26]
(3) CsCl gradient centrifugation with EtBr	High purity and yield of DNA or RNA	Laborious, costly and time consuming,	[29, 30]
(4) Oligo(dT) cellulose chromatography	Fast protocol, good yield of mRNA recovery	Purification bias for mRNAs	[1]
(5) Chelex® extraction	Quick and simple protocol; no use of hazardous chemicals	Low purity of nucleic acids	[35, 36]
(6) CTAB extraction	Efficient method for plant and other “hard to lyse” samples	Laborious, time-consuming; use of hazardous chemicals	[38]