Zur Entstehung des Chlorophylls und seiner Beziehung zum Blutfarbstoff. II. Mitteilung.

Abstract

The last step in the formation of chlorophyll in the plant is a photochemical addition of oxygen to protochlorophyll, which is found in leaves grown in the dark and in the seed-coats of Cucurbitaceae. The young seed-coat of the gourd contains protochlorophyll, but no chlorophyll. By opening the fruit the former will partly be transformed into the latter, but as soon as the cells of the testa are dead, light will no longer alter the protochlorophyll. The formation of phylloerythrin in the animal body is not only a reduction process, but is combined with a splitting off of ester-groups and with anhydrization.