100th Posts in Chem-Eng World talks about Chlorophyll

I can't believed that it's already my 100 posts inside this blog within a space of 5 months. Well, I hope i can continue posting some good chemical engineering stuff.

Few days ago, I have a meeting with a bleaching earth supplier, Taiko Clay. We have some technical discussion. I found that the discussion was very interesting and getting very technical as well. One of the interesting point that caught my attention was chlorophyll, which is always associated with plants. Chloropyll is also one of the impurities inside the crude palm oil (CPO). Before this i never know the chemical formula and structure of chlorophyll. I also did not know there are various types / forms of chlorophyll: ie. chloropyll a; b etc.I did not know that there is magnesium inside chlorophyll!!!

Therefore, I would like to share some piece of info that I picked up that day.

chlorophyll a (′klör·ə′fil ′ā)

C₅₅H₇₂O₅N₄Mg A magnesium chelate of dihydroporphyrin that is esterified with phytol and has a cyclopentanone ring; occurs in all higher plants and algae.

chlorophyll b (′klör·ə′fil ′bē)

C55H70O6N4Mg An ester similar to chlorophyll a but with a CHO substituted for a CH3; occurs in small amounts in all green plants and algae.

Read more about chlorophyll from wikipedia
Read more about chlorophyll from Answers.com