A new bacteriochlorophyll from brown-colored Chlorobiaceae.

A new bacteriochlorophyll has been isolated by thin layer chromatography from all strains of the brown-colored Chlorobiaceae Chlorobium phaeobacteroides and Chlorobium phaeovibriodes. The new bacteriochlorophylle--like the bacteriochlorophylls c and d--represents the major amounts of bacteriochlorophyll a. Bacteriochlorophyll e can be differentiated from the bacteriochlorophylls c and d by its absorption maxima in aceton and its different Rf-value in the thin layer chromatogram. The structure of the new bacteriochlorophyll e has been elucidated on the basis of mass spectra, 1H-and 13C-NMR-spectra, the UV/VIS-spectrum as well as IR-, ORD-, and CD-spectra. The new bacteriochlorophyll has the same relationship to bacteriochlorophyll c as chlorophyll b from green plants to chlorophyll a; therefore, bacteriochlorophyll e represents the first formyl-substituted chlorophyll from bacteria. Similar to the bacteriochlorophylls c and d, the new bacteriochlorophyll e consists of a mixture of at least three homologues which differ from each other by different substituents on the pyrrol rings II and III.