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Sulphur-containing Pigments of Plant Origin

Abstract

WITH the view of throwing light on the nature of the transient blue pigment, cyanohermidin, formed on exposing to the air an anserobically prepared extract of Mercurialisperennis1, we have recently undertaken the investigation of the more stable blue compound formed on drying the actively growing shoots of this plant collected during the early spring. We have found that this compound changes spontaneously on keeping, or more rapidly on heating its aqueous solutions, into a red product from which we have been able to separate a series of pigments, by a combination of chemical and physical methods. These pigments are glycosides which contain, in addition to carbon and hydrogen, both nitrogen and sulphur. The occurrence of the latter element in a pigment of vegetable origin has, so far as we are aware, not been recorded before, and we think this observation of sufficient interest to warrant its publication in this form, reserving the detailed description of these new substances for a future occasion.

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References

  1. Haas and Hill, Bioctusm. J., 19, 236 (1925).

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HAAS, P., HILL, T. & RUSSELL-WELLS, B. Sulphur-containing Pigments of Plant Origin. Nature 137, 783–784 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137783c0

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