porphyrin

Term: porphyrin

Literally meaning: “having purple-red hue”

Origin: Anc Greek

πυρ/pyr(=fire)

+φύρω/phyro(=stir)

Coined/History

In 1889 by Dutch phycisian and Barend Joseph Stokvis (1834 –1902) who observed the dark red urine, discovered that it contained porphyrins. Porphyrins had been described as a chemical entity in 1871 by the German chemist Felix Hoppe-Syeler, named for their purple hue .

Definition

pyrrole nuclei

Porphirins are organic pigments, such as heme and chlorophyll, all of them containing the porphin structure (four linked pyrrole nuclei).