Chlorophyll
Green pigments that absorb light for oxygenic photosynthesis.
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Cyanobacteria, algae, and plants contain chloroplasts that hold a green pigment, chlorophyll, which functions as a photochemical catalyst.[1] The term "chlorophyll" originates from the Greek χλωρός (khloros, meaning "pale green") and φύλλον (phyllon, meaning "leaf").[1] Light energy is absorbed by plants through the action of chlorophyll.[1]
Quick Facts
- Types in green plants
- chlorophyll a and b
- Function
- absorb light energy and drive charge separation in photosynthesis
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
German chemist Richard Willstätter worked on chlorophyll from 1905 to 1915.[2] Hans Fischer elucidated the general structure of chlorophyll a in 1940.[2] Robert Burns Woodward published a total synthesis of chlorophyll a by 1960.[2] Chlorophyll f was announced in 2010, found in cyanobacteria that form stromatolites.[2][3]
In 1817, Joseph Bienaimé Caventou and Pierre Joseph Pelletier were the researchers who first isolated and gave the name "chlorophyll" to this substance.[4] The year 1906 marked the discovery that magnesium is a component of chlorophyll, which also represented the initial identification of that element within a living organism.[4] Ian Fleming finished determining the final stereochemical details of chlorophyll in 1967.[2] As a food additive colorant, chlorophyll is assigned the E number E140.[5]
During the 1950s, marketing campaigns for toothpaste, sanitary towels, soap, and other items promoted chlorophyll, relying on assertions that it blocked odors.[6]
What the research sources say
May explains that the basic structure of chlorophyll is a porphyrin ring coordinated to a central magnesium atom.[7] May states that the two main types, chlorophyll a and b, complement each other by absorbing at slightly different wavelengths.[7] A 2010 Scientific American article reports that chlorophyll f can absorb near-infrared light up to 706 nanometers in vitro.[3] That article notes that chlorophyll f had an identical mass to chlorophyll b, suggesting they might be isomers.[3]
The article quotes Min Chen calling chlorophyll f "the most red-shifted chlorophyll we have found in nature".[3] According to Paul May, chlorophyll is the molecule that captures sunlight and employs that energy to create carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water.[7]
References
- Wikipedia, "Chlorophyll" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: May, "Chlorophyll", The Molecule of the Month, May 2000; "Notice sur la matière verte des feuilles", Journal de Pharmacie, 1817, p. 454; "chlorophyll" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Chlorophyll" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "5th Pigments in Food congress- for quality and health", University of Helsinki, 2008; "The total synthesis of chlorophyll", Journal of the American Chemical Society, July 1960, p. 3800–3802; "Absolute Configuration and the Structure of Chlorophyll", Nature, 14 October 1967, p. 151–152; "The total synthesis of chlorophyll a", Tetrahedron, 1990, p. 7599–7659; "A New Form of Chlorophyll?", Scientific American, August 2010; "Infrared chlorophyll could boost solar cells.", New Scientist, 19 August 2010; "A red-shifted chlorophyll", Science, Sep en.wikipedia.org
- "A New Form of Chlorophyll?", Scientific American, August 2010. facts only, no text reused. scientificamerican.com
- Wikipedia, "Chlorophyll" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Notice sur la matière verte des feuilles", Journal de Pharmacie, 1817, p. 454; "Zur Kenntniss der Zusammensetzung des Chlorophylls", Annalen der Chemie, 1906, p. 48–82; "5th Pigments in Food congress- for quality and health", University of Helsinki, 2008 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Chlorophyll" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "International Association of Color Manufacturers: Chlorophylls", iacmcolor.org (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Chlorophyll" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "All that glistens is not (Green) gold: Historicising the contemporary chlorophyll fad through a multimodal analysis of Swedish marketing, 1950–1953", Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, 2022, p. 374–398 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- May, "Chlorophyll", The Molecule of the Month, May 2000. facts only, no text reused. chm.bris.ac.uk
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Chlorophyll (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Chlorophyll (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the , each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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