Chlorophyll, magnesium

Oxygen transport in animals is performed by related pigments such as haem (Fig. 2.28), which is associated with a protein, globin, in haemoglobin.The metal atom in haems (iron) and chlorophylls (magnesium) is impor-... 

Chlorophyll Magnesium Chloride Magnesium Hydroxide Magnesium Oxide Magnesium Silicate Hydroxide Magnesium Sulfate... 

A new approach recently was taken to maintain an excess of soluble scavenging metal in a mud and to minimize the adverse effects of the metal ion. The metal ion is bonded loosely with an organic compound (ligand) that is highly water-soluble. These organometallic compounds are commonly called metal chelates. Examples are hemoglobin in blood (iron chelate) and plant chlorophyll (magnesium chelate). 

Macrocyclic tetrapyrrole compounds such as heme (iron), chlorophyll (magnesium), siroheme (iron), and E12 (cobalt) contain specific metal ions at the center of their tetrapyrrole rings [17]. Metal ion chelatases can be divided into two classes based on their structural architecture. Class 1 chelatases are heteromultimeric enzymes that require three gene products for efficient catalysis [18] of the ATP-dependent chelation reaction [19]. Enzymes in this class include chlorophyll and bacteriochlorophyll magnesium chelatases [18] and aerobic cobalt chelatase (CobNST) [20]. 

All organisms seem to have an absolute need for magnesium. In plants, the magnesium complex chlorophyll is the prime agent in photosynthesis. In animals, magnesium functions as an enzyme activator the enzyme which catalyses the ATP hydrolysis mentioned above is an important example. 

Organic magnesium is important in both plant and animal life. Chlorophylls are magnesium-centered perphyrins. 

Green coloration, present in many vegetable oils, poses a particular problem in oil extracted from immature or damaged soybeans. Chlorophyll is the compound responsible for this defect. StmcturaHy, chlorophyll is composed of a porphyrin ring system, in which magnesium is the central metal atom, and a phytol side chain which imparts a hydrophobic character to the stmcture. Conventional bleaching clays are not as effective for removal of chlorophylls as for red pigments, and specialized acid-activated adsorbents or carbon are required. 

Potassium sodium copper chlorophyllin (chiorophyllin—copper complex)—A green-black powder obtained from chlorophyll by replacing the methyl and phytyl ester groups with alkaH and replacing the magnesium with copper. The source of the chlorophyll is dehydrated alfalfa. 

Hydrolysis of chlorophyll using sodium hydroxide produces the moderately water-soluble sodium salts of chlorophyllin, phytol and methanol (145). The magnesium ia chlorophyllin may be replaced by copper. The sodium copper chlorophyllin salt is heat stable, and is ideal for coloring foods where heat is iavolved, such as ia canning (146). 

Preeminent in importance among the macro-cyclic complexes of Group 2 elements are the chlorophylls, which are modified porphyrin complexes of Mg. These compounds are vital to the process of photosynthesis in green plants (see Panel). Magnesium and Ca are also intimately... 

Chlorophyll, the substance responsible for the green color of leaves, has one magnesium atom per chlorophyll molecule and contains 2.72% magnesium by mass. What is the molar mass of chlorophyll ... 

If a typical plant leaf yields 40.0 mg of chlorophyll A, how many milligrams of this will be magnesium The molecular weight of chlorophyll A is 893. 

Another tetrahydroporphyrin derivative, porphodimethene (7), which consists of two dipyr-rylmethene halves is obtained in the photoreduction of magnesium-containing chlorophyll a (6) with hydrogen sulfide3211 42 as reductant and pyridine as base. 

In a study of the photoreduction of zinc(II) or magnesium chlorophyll derivatives 8 with ascorbic acid in the presence of l,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABC-O), a 2,3-m-hydrogenated isobacteriochlorin 9 is formed which subsequently rearranges to a 3-ethylidenc derivative... 

Magnesium and calcium are by far the most important members of the group. Magnesium is, in effect, the doorway to life it is present in every chlorophyll molecule and hence enables photosynthesis to take place. Calcium is the element of rigidity and construction it is the cation in the bones of our skeletons, the shells of shellfish, and the concrete, mortar, and limestone of buildings. 

Esterification of the propionic acid side chain at C-13 (ring C) with a methyl group catalyzed by S-adenosyl-L-methionine-magnesium protoporphyrin 0-meth-yltransferase yields protoporphyrin IX monomethyl ester (MPE), which originates protochlorophyllide by a P-oxidation and cyclization of the methylated propionic side chain. This molecule contains a fifth isocyclic ring (ring E), the cyclopentanone ring that characterizes aU chlorophylls. 

Granik, S., Magnesium vinyl pheoporphyrin another intermediate in the biological synthesis of chlorophyll, J. Biol Chem., 183, 713, 1950. 

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