porphyrin, any of a class of water-soluble, nitrogenous biological pigments (biochromes), derivatives of which include the hemoproteins (porphyrins combined with metals and protein). Examples of hemoproteins are the green, photosynthetic chlorophylls of higher plants; the hemoglobins in the blood of many animals; the cytochromes, enzymes that occur in minute quantities in most cells and are involved in oxidative processes; and catalase, also a widely distributed enzyme that accelerates the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide.
Porphyrins have complex cyclic structures. All porphyrin compounds absorb light intensely at or close to 410 nanometres. Structurally, porphyrin consists of four pyrrole rings (five-membered closed structures containing one nitrogen and four carbon atoms) linked to each other by methine groups (―CH=). The iron atom is kept in the centre of the porphyrin ring by interaction with the four nitrogen atoms. The iron atom can combine with two other substituents; in oxyhemoglobin, one substituent is a histidine of the protein carrier, and the other is an oxygen molecule. In some heme proteins, the protein is also bound covalently to the side chains of porphyrin.
Green chromoproteins called biliproteins are found in many insects, such as grasshoppers, and also in the eggshells of many birds. The biliproteins are derived from the bile pigment biliverdin, which in turn is formed from porphyrin; biliverdin contains four pyrrole rings and three of the four methine groups of porphyrin. Large amounts of biliproteins, the molecular weights of which are about 270,000, have been found in red and blue-green algae; the red protein is called phycoerythrin, the blue one phycocyanobilin. Phycocyanobilin consists of eight subunits with a molecular weight of 28,000 each; about 89 percent of the molecule is protein with a large amount of carbohydrate.
Evidence indicates that, in various animals, certain porphyrins may be involved in activating hormones from the pituitary gland of the brain, including those concerned with the period of sexual heat in certain female animals. Porphyrins in the integument (skin) of some mollusks and cnidarians are regarded as being photosensitive receptors of light.