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On the Pelletier and Caventou (1817, 1818) papers on chlorophyll and beyond

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Abstract

The first use of the word ‘chlorophyll’ (chlorophile or chlorophyle in the French original) appeared in two papers by Pierre-Joseph Pelletier and Joseph Bienaimé Caventou, pharmacists in Paris who isolated and studied the green pigment from plants. Here, we provide English translations of their 1818 note and the slightly longer 1817 paper. Historical context is provided including a timeline of key discoveries in chlorophyll chemistry pertaining to photosynthesis.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Robert E. Blankenship for sustained encouragement in preparing this historical report, and Hartmut Lichtenthaler for reading an earlier version of this manuscript. Limited support was provided to one of us (JSL) by a grant from the NSF (CHE-2054497).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Biology, Department of Biochemistry and Center of Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Govindjee Govindjee

  2. Anne Burras Lane, Newport News, VA, 23606, USA

    Alexandrina Stirbet

  3. Department of Chemistry, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Jonathan S. Lindsey

  4. Department of Biology 1-Botany, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, 80638, Munich, Germany

    Hugo Scheer

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  1. Govindjee Govindjee
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  2. Alexandrina Stirbet
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  3. Jonathan S. Lindsey
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  4. Hugo Scheer
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Contributions

Govindjee Govindjee wrote the first draft of manuscript; he was aided by both Alexendrina Stirbet and Hugo Scheer in the translation (rom French into English) of both the 1818 paper by Pelletier and Cabentou (in the main paper) and their 1817 paper in the Supplementary Material. In addition, Higo Scheer contributed to checking, editing and adding new material to the rest of the paper. Jonathan Lindsey edited the entire revised manuscript. All the authors have reviewed the paper before its submission.

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Correspondence to Govindjee Govindjee.

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Govindjee, G., Stirbet, A., Lindsey, J.S. et al. On the Pelletier and Caventou (1817, 1818) papers on chlorophyll and beyond. Photosynth Res 160, 55–60 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-024-01081-x

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