Abstract
THE fat-soluble pigments (lipochromes) which form the subject of the present survey, comprise a sharply defined class of yellow to violet-red compounds not only widely distributed in flowers and fruits, but also met with throughout the whole of the animal kingdom. In virtue of the fact that the first of these pigments to be obtained in crystalline form was isolated from carrots, they are commonly known as carotenoids. As a group they are characterized further by their insolubility in water, by their sensitivity to atmospheric oxygen, which readily bleaches them, and by the deep blue coloration which they give with sulphuric acid. In addition to its occurrence in the carrot, the most typical member of the group, carotene, is invariably found with chlorophyll in all green foliage, being also associated with another yellow consitituent to which the name xanthophyll was originally given. Despite the wide distribution of these two pigments in Nature, it must be emphasized that they, in common with other members of the group, occur only in very minute amounts in living matter. Thus the fresh carrot contains only about 0-1 per cent of carotene, whilst in fresh grass the order approximates only to 0*01 per cent carotene and 0*02 per cent xanthophyll.
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Heilbron, I., Gillam, A. Pigments Associated with the Fatty Tissues of Plants and Animals. Nature 139, 612–615 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/139612a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/139612a0