In organic chemistry, chlorins are tetrapyrrole pigments that are partially hydrogenatedporphyrins.[1] The parent chlorin is an unstable compound which undergoes air oxidation to porphine.[2] The name chlorin derives from chlorophyll. Chlorophylls are magnesium-containing chlorins and occur as photosynthetic pigments in chloroplasts. The term "chlorin" strictly speaking refers to only compounds with the same ring oxidation state as chlorophyll.
The most abundant chlorin is the photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll. Chlorophylls have a fifth, ketone-containing ring unlike the chlorins. Diverse chlorophylls exists, such as chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, chlorophyll d, chlorophyll e, chlorophyll f, and chlorophyll g. Chlorophylls usually feature magnesium as a central metal atom, replacing the two NH centers in the parent.[4]
Microbes produce two reduced variants of chlorin, bacteriochlorins and isobacteriochlorins. Bacteriochlorins are found in some bacteriochlorophylls; the ring structure is produced by Chlorophyllide a reductase (COR) reducing a chlorin ring at the C7-8 double boud.[5] Isobacteriochlorins are found in nature mostly as sirohydrochlorin, a biosynthetic intermediate of vitamin B12, produced without going through a chlorin. In living organisms, both are ultimately derived from uroporphyrinogen III, a near-universal intermediate in tetrapyrrole biosynthesis.[6]
Synthetic chlorins
Numerous synthetic chlorins with different functional groups and/or ring modifications have been examined.[7]
Contracted chlorins can be synthesised by reduction of B(III)subporphyrin or by oxidation of corresponding B(III)subbacteriochlorin.[8] The B(III)subchlorins were directly synthesized as meso-ester B(III)subchlorin from meso-diester tripyrromethane, these class of compound showed very good fluorescence quantum yield and singlet oxygen producing efficiency[9][10]
^Battersby, Alan R. (2000). "Tetrapyrroles: The pigments of life". Natural Product Reports. 17 (6): 507–526. doi:10.1039/b002635m. PMID11152419.
^Spikes, John D. (July 1990). "New trends in photobiology". Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology. 6 (3): 259–274. doi:10.1016/1011-1344(90)85096-F. PMID2120404.
^Chew, Aline Gomez Maqueo; Bryant, Donald A. (2007). "Chlorophyll Biosynthesis in Bacteria: The Origins of Structural and Functional Diversity". Annual Review of Microbiology. 61: 113–129. doi:10.1146/annurev.micro.61.080706.093242. PMID17506685.
^Battersby, Alan R. (2000). "Tetrapyrroles: The pigments of life: A Millennium review". Natural Product Reports. 17 (6): 507–526. doi:10.1039/B002635M. PMID11152419.
^Taniguchi, Masahiko; Lindsey, Jonathan S. (2017). "Synthetic Chlorins, Possible Surrogates for Chlorophylls, Prepared by Derivatization of Porphyrins". Chemical Reviews. 117 (2): 344–535. doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.5b00696. OSTI1534468. PMID27498781.