Mechanism of photo-oxidation of bacteriochlorophyll-C derivatives

✍ Scribed by Robert F. Troxler; Kevin M. Smith; Stanley B. Brown

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1980
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 241 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0040-4039
• DOI: 10.1016/s0040-4039(00)71441-9

✦ Synopsis

Sumnary: Photo-oxidation of pheophorbides related to the bacteriochlorophylls-c to give open-chain acetylbilitrienes is shown to proceed by a mechanism involving only one oxygen inokzule. Degradation of protoheme (1) to give protobiliverdin (2) is an important natural process occurring in animal tissues , and it represents the main pathway for catabolism of hemeprotein heme.' Though heme degradation has been extensively studied because of its health-related aspects, the most abundant tetrapyrrole in the biosphere is chlorophyll, and we have no idea how the millions of tons of chlorophyll pigments are degraded annually in senescent leaves. Several studies have shown that chlorophylls from green plants are readily photo-oxidized 2'3, but the process appears to be complex and no bile pigment analog has yet been isolated from such systems.