The prosthetic group of cytochrome oxidase. 2. Chemistry of porphyrin a

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Abstract
Porphyrin a can be oxidized to a carbonyl derivative and dehydrated to a compound which contains a second carbon-carbon double bond. Since both these new functional groups are in conjugation with the pyrrolic ring system it is concluded that porphyrin a has a hydroxyl group on a carbon [alpha] to the porphyrin ring. Evidence is presented which indicates that the [alpha]-hydroxyalkyl side chain is situated at the 2 position of the ring system and is of greater lengtn than two carbon atoms. It has been shown that this side chain contains the locus of the [alpha][forward arrow][plus or minus] transformation of porphyrin a. From evidence presented in this paper porphyrin a can be described as l3:5-trimethyl-2([alpha] -hydroxyalkyl) -4([beta] -alkylvinyl) -6:7 -di([beta] -carboxyethyl) -8 -f or myl -porphin.