The Pigment of the Malaria Parasite Plasmodium berghei

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Abstract
Early work by Brown (1911) indicated that the pigment occurring in the spleen and liver of malarial patients infected with Plasmodium fakiparum, the parasite of malignant tertian malaria, was haematin. Sinton & Ghosh (1934a, b) and Ghosh & Sinton (1934) extracted the pigment from the red cells of monkeys heavily parasitized with P. knowlesi and established that this substance was closely similar to or identical with haematin. Devine & Fulton (1941) and Morrison & Anderson (1942) presented further data in support of the nature of this monkey pigment. From spectroscopic and other evidence, that present in P. gallinaceum of chickens was also shown by Devine & Fulton (1942) to be haematin. Because the above authors used dilute alkali for extraction, which is known to bring about changes in the properties of this substance, Rimington & Fulton (1947) reinvestigated the pigment of P. knowlesi and of P. gaZZinaceum using concentrated phenol for extraction, and established beyond reasonable doubt that the vinyl side chains in the haenlatin remained unaffected. Recently a plasmodium, which parasitizes the wild rodent Thamnomys surdaster in the Congo, has been described by Vincke & Lips (1948) and named by them Plasmodium berghei. It readily infects mice, rats, hamsters and other laboratory animals, and has proved useful in chemotherapeutic experiments. This note describes a chemical investigation of the pigment present within the parasite. Experimental Hooded rats of weight 60-80 g. were inoculated intraperitoneally with infected blood from a donor rat and 1 week later, when the infection had reached a peak, the animals were anaesthetized and then bled by cardiac puncture in presence of heparin. The infected and non-infected red cells obtained by centrifugation were laked in distilled water and repeatedly washed till free from haemoglobin. The residue was kept under ethanol till sufficient was available for extraction of pigment. This extraction was carried out as described by Rimington & Fulton (1947), using a concentrated solution of phenol prepared by adding 10 ml. water to 90 g. of crystalline phenol. The pigment-containing material was mixed at room temperature with twice its

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