Tuesday, Apr 22, 2025 10:15 [IST]
Last Update: Monday, Apr 21, 2025 17:14 [IST]
Chlorophyll
and Hemoglobin are two of the most powerful and beautiful molecules in nature.
They are practically the molecules of life. It's amazing how similar they are
in construction. Chlorophyll is built around a magnesium-nitrogen frame (Mg-N)
while the hemoglobin has iron at the center and nitrogen ions around it (Fe-N)
with a similar ring structure known as “Porphyrin”
where a heterocyclic molecule called “Pyrrole”
is complexed with magnesium in chlorophyll and iron in hemoglobin.Chlorophyll
is the molecule in plants that absorbs sunlight and uses its energy to
synthesize carbohydrates from CO2 and water. This process is known
as “Photosynthesis” and is the basis
for sustaining the life processes of all plants. Since animals and humans
obtain their food supply by eating plants, photosynthesis can be said to be the
“Source” of our life also.During the
process of photosynthesis, plants release oxygen into the atmosphere, the
greatest and the most critical recycling activity known since animals produce
carbon dioxide, a toxic gas resulting from their consumption of carbohydrates. The
manufacturing of carbohydrates (basic food) using cheap things like water,
sunlight and carbon dioxide is the great secret of life. From economic points
of view production of carbohydrates in photosynthesis is a nature’s gift to
human being and animals. Secondly, it is the ability of “Ruminants” (animals with four stomachs like cows (bovines) sheep
and goat to turn the crudest carbohydrates called cellulose and found in leaves
into expensive proteins in the form of meat. This happens with the help of a
special crop of bacteria found in their first stomach, known as“Rumen”.
Hemoglobin
is a protein molecule that picks up oxygen from our lungs, take it to all the
two trillion cells in our body and then return to the flow station of the heart
for a pumping surge before going back to the lungs for another round of
oxygenation. The cycle is critical and must be kept going for life without a
pause. Hemoglobin is built around iron (Fe) and also contributes to blood’s red
colour.Hemoglobin binds to oxygen molecules in the lungs, forming
oxyhemoglobin. This complex then carries oxygen throughout the body to the
tissues where it is needed for cellular respiration. As oxygen is released in
the tissues, hemoglobin also picks up carbon dioxide, a waste product of
cellular respiration. This forms carbaminohemoglobin, which is then carried back
to the lungs to be exhaled.
Abnormalities
in hemoglobin can lead to conditions like anemia, where there's a deficiency of
red blood cells or hemoglobin.
Prof. R.B Woodward synthesized chlorophyll in his laboratory in 1960. His synthesis was considered as a major achievement in organic chemistry. Though, chemically hemoglobin synthesis has not been materialized till date but hemoglobin can be produced through various methods including microbial synthesis using metabolic engineering and synthetic biology. Additionally, scientists have isolated hemoglobin from human or animal blood and used it for various applications.
Hemoglobin
has played a spectacular role in the history of biology, chemistry and
medicine. In the arterial circulation, hemoglobin has a high affinity for
oxygen and a low affinity for carbon dioxide, organic phosphates, hydrogen and
chloride ions. In the venous circulation, these relative affinities are
reversed.It's the reason doctors make sure that we are sufficient on iron. Magnesium
Phosphate and Phosphate of Iron/ Ferrum are best natural cell salts for the
heart. Together they regulate heart impulse and reinforce the blood ability to
attract oxygen.
The
wonders of the porphyrin ring lies in the structural aspects of chlorophyll and
Hemoglobin.Hemoglobin has an iron core sphere. This core is magnetized with
every heart pulse. Despite differences, the core architecture contains a metal
held in a nitrogenous ring and illustrates how evolution has reused a successful
chemical motif for two very different biological roles which are harvesting
light and transporting oxygen. Both chlorophyll and hemoglobin has unique role
in our life. For example, humans need light and vitamin D from the sun. Also
plants love iron in the soil while humans need a good source of magnesium which
takes a substantial effort to acquire in our everyday trends of diet.In spite
of close similarityin structural aspects of chlorophyll and hemoglobin, the
major difference is that plant blood carries magnesium (Mg) molecule where our
blood contains an iron (Fe) molecule. Magnesium is responsible for making plant
blood green and iron makes our blood red.Chlorophyll molecules are more complex
with a phytol chain attached to the porphyrin ring which helps them in the
thylakoid membranes of chloroplasts. Hemoglobin is a protein with a more
intricate structure involving four polypeptide chains each containing a heme
group with the iron atom. Recent research studies (2023-2024) at NIH (National
Institutes of Health), UK suggests that chlorophyll can help to improve blood
parameters like red blood cell (RBC) levels and hemoglobin in more intense
structural aspects of chlorophyll. Research studies conducted in 2020 at Zurich
university in Switzerland revealed that chlorophyll helps to strengthen human
bones by increasing the absorption of calcium (Ca) and other minerals. A
research group at Boston university (USA) in 2021 revealed that chlorophyll
helps to improve vision by protecting the eyes from ultraviolet rays and
reducing the risk of cataracts.
It
would be interesting to speculate that the porphyrin rings of hemoglobin and
chlorophyll would be exchangeable. Recent research study suggests that drinking
wheat grass juice which is rich in chlorophyll helped to increase hemoglobin in
anemic women. Though the raw materials for the construction of hemoglobin and
chlorophyll are same, however, it is very important to note that the plants and
animals are very different from each other and also we should not expect that
experiments that take place in the laboratory for replication process which will
also be successful inside the body because the processes inside the body are
very complex. Chlorophyll can act as anti-aging agents. US based pharmaceutical
company claims their product in gel form to the skin can remarkably reduce
signs of photo aging which resulted from sun exposure.
Green
leafy vegetables are full of chlorophylls which also act as potential “anti-oxidants” and our immune system can
fight against various free radicals which develop in our body due to our life style eating habits nowadays. One of the
primary ways of consuming chlorophyll containg vegetables is to eat alfalfa and
spinach. Most commonly available chlorophyll supplements contain chlorophyllin.
It is water soluble derivative of natural chlorophyll and is potentially better
absorbed by the body than other forms of chlorophyll.
Courtesy: National Institutes of
Health (NIH), UK & Nature Science Journals
