Corrins and porphyrins: two of nature’s pigments of life

Abstract

Given the relative scarcity of cobalt in the earth’s crust, its retention in biological systems, principally (but not exclusively) in the cobalt corrinoids or derivatives of vitamin B₁₂, may be surprising. The chemistry of these compounds and the much more widely utilized iron porphyrins, is compared and contrasted and an attempt made to explain the retention of cobalt chemistry in biology.

Keywords:

• Cobalt
• cobalt corrinoids
• B₁₂
• iron
• iron porphyrins
• hemes
• hemoproteins

Acknowledgement

A word of thanks to Professor Sergei V. Makarov for the invitation to submit this article to this special issue of JCC, originally in honor of Professor O.I. Koifman on what would have been his 80th birthday, and now, sadly, in his memory.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Funding from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, is gratefully acknowledged.