A Study of Some Plant Carotenoids and of Certain Colorless Fluorescing Compounds of Marine Origin

Author: Petracek, Francis James

Year: 1951

Degree: Master's thesis

Advisor: Zechmeister, Laszlo

Committee Member: Unknown, Unknown

Option: Chemistry

DOI: 10.7907/2ge3-te76

Abstract

The sudden color change observed during the ripening of the Pyracantha gibbsi ynnanensis berries was investigated. It was caused by the rapid formation of an anthocyanin, not by the cis→trans isomerization of a polycis carotenoid.

30 gm. of all-trans lycopene were stereoisomerized by refluxing in benzene, and the solutions were chromatographed to separate the very small amounts of polycis lycopenes that should be present according to theoretical considerations. Four chromatographically separable pigments were isolated from the filtrate which would have contained any polycis lycopenes, but none of the four pigments belonged to the stereoisomerica lycopene sot.

The carotenoid pigments and fluorescing substances extracted from several marine sources were isolated and investigated by chromatographic and spectroscopic methods. A provitamin D sterol was identified and isolated in an impure form from one of these marine sources, the Thoracophelia mucronata.

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