Shiono Masaaki, Matsugaki Naohiro, Takeda Kosaku
Department of Physics, Graduate School of Science, Kyushu University, Hakozaki 6-10-1, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan.
Nature. 2005 Aug 11;436(7052):791. doi: 10.1038/436791a.
The same anthocyanin pigment makes roses red but cornflowers blue, a phenomenon that has so far not been entirely explained. Here we describe the X-ray crystal structure of the cornflower pigment, which reveals that its blue colour arises from a complex of six molecules each of anthocyanin and flavone, with one ferric iron, one magnesium and two calcium ions. We believe that this tetrametal complex may represent a previously undiscovered type of supermolecular pigment.
同样的花青素色素能让玫瑰呈红色，却让矢车菊呈蓝色，这一现象至今尚未得到完全解释。在此，我们描述了矢车菊色素的X射线晶体结构，结果表明其蓝色源自花青素和黄酮各六个分子与一个铁离子、一个镁离子和两个钙离子形成的复合物。我们认为这种四金属复合物可能代表了一种此前未被发现的超分子色素类型。
