On the relative intensities of the “blue” and “red” absorption bands of chlorophyll a

✍ Scribed by Harold J. Perkins; D.W.A. Roberts

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1964
• Weight: 710 KB
• Volume: 79
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0926-6577
• DOI: 10.1016/0926-6577(64)90034-8

✦ Synopsis

Recent suggestions that the ratio of the heights of the "blue" (430 mtz) and "red" (660 mtz ) absorption bands of chlorophyll a in diethyl ether solution should be 1.17-I.I 9 are not compatible with our results for the specific activities or the spectroscopic properties of rigorously purified samples of 14C-labelled chlorophyll a. We have shown that it is possible to obtain values of this ratio significantly lower than the commonly accepted value of 1.31-1.32 as the result of interaction of the pigment molecules with alcohol or water in the diethyl ether. We have shown with the aid of spectroscopic, chromatographic, and radiotracer data that the lower values certainly do not reflect improved freedom of the chlorophyll a preparations from xanthophylls as has been claimed. We also conclude that a limiting value for this ratio must exist and that this value is 1.29.