Molecular complexes of amino acids with porphyrins as possible precursors of pigment-protein systems.

The present communication gives experimental results of the studies of catalytic and photochemical properties of peptide-like compounds containing metalloporphyrins (hemoproteinoids and molecular complexes obtained through adsorption of porphyrins and amino acids on volcanic ash). The data suggest that molecular complexes of amino acids with porphyrins could have evolved in the course of chemical evolution and were intermediated between abiogenically synthesized molecules of amino acids and porphyrins and pigment-protein systems of living organisms.