Elementary Cell and Space Group of Ethyl-chlorophyllide

Abstract

CHLOROPHYLL itself prepared after Stoll¹ is amorphous, giving in X-ray photographs only one broad ring corresponding to a distance of 4·2 A. However, by replacing the phytol group by the ethyl group, a crystallizable compound can be obtained. Ethyl-chlorophyllide was prepared from leaves of Heracleum, following also the method of Stoll. By evaporation from etherical solutions small crystals, weighing about 2γ, were obtained in the form of thin equilateral triangles. The crystal form was, as already remarked by Willstätter and Stoll¹, clearly trigonal hemiedric (symmetry class (C₃).