Universal Ramblings

Chlorophyll which is also known as the chlorophyl is a green pigment that is found in almost all algae, plants & cyanobacteria. The name Chlorophyll is derived from the Greek words, chloros which means “green” , phyllon which means “leaf”. It is an very important biomolecule and it is critical in photosynthesis, that allows plants to obtain the energy needed for the plant from light. It absorbs the light most strongly in the blue portion of the electromagnetic spectrum which is followed by the red portion. However, red portion is a poor absorber of green and also the near-green portions of the spectrum, hence the green color of the chlorophyll containing tissues.Chlorophyll was the first isolated by Mr. Joseph Bienaimé Caventou and Mr. Pierre Joseph Pelletier in the year 1817.

The Chlorophyll molecules are specifically arranged in and around the photosystems which are embedded in the thylakoid membranes of the chloroplasts. In these complexes, the chlorophyll serves a couple of primary functions. The function of the vast majority of it (up to several 100 molecules per photosystem) is to absorb the light and transfer that light energy by using resonance energy transfer to a specific chlorophyll pair in reaction center of  photosystems.

The couple of currently accepted photosystem units are the Photosystem II and the Photosystem I, which have their own distinct reaction center named chlorophylls, named as the P680 and P700, respectively.These pigments are named after the wavelength is measured in nanometers of their red peak absorption at maximum. The identity, function and the spectral properties of the types of it in each photosystem are unique and determined by one another and the protein structure surrounding it. Once extracted from the protein into a solvent such as the acetone or methanol, these chlorophyll pigments can be separated in a simple paper called as the chromatography experiment and based on the number of polar groups between the chlorophyll a and the chlorophyll b, will chemically separate out on the paper.