Abstract
ONE of the characteristic properties of most bile pigments is their ability to form complex salts with zinc ions, many of which display brilliant and distinctive fluorescence. It seems to be generally accepted, however, that rubins do not form zinc complexes1–4, mainly on the strength of Fischer's observation3, that mesobilirubin gave no fluorescent zinc salt, and no further relevant work appears to have been published. This belief has been used in support of the theory that the rubins exist in the bislactam (I) rather than in the bislactam form (II), as the latter contains two pyrrolenine nitrogen groups which should be capable of complexing with zinc ions, whereas the former does not1,2,5,6. 
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References
Lemberg, R., and Legg, J. W., Hematin Compounds and Bile Pigments, 123 (Interscienee, New York, 1949).
Bentley, K. W., The Natural Pigments, 162 (Interscience, 1960).
Gray, C. H., Kulczycka, A., and Nicholson, D. C., J. Chem. Soc., 2268 (1961).
Gray, C. H., Kulczycka, A., and Nicholson, D. C., J. Chem. Soc. 2276 (1961).
Fischer, H., Z. Biol., 65, 163 (1915).
Lemberg, R., and Legge, J. W., Hematin Compounds and Bile Pigments, 119 (Interscience, New York, 1949).
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CARRA, P. Zinc Complex Salt Formation by Bilirubin and Mesobilirubin. Nature 195, 899–900 (1962). https://doi.org/10.1038/195899a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/195899a0
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