Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

HI,

I understand that many vegetables that are rich in iron are dark green in color. The richness of the green color in leaves comes from high amounts of chlorophyll, right? If this is so, there ought to be a connection between iron and chlorophyll. But I am not able to find it. Can you please help?

Hi Astrictone,

What a great observation!
There is indeed a connection between iron and chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is synthesized in the plant through a series of enzymatic reactions, so there are lots of intermediate steps to turn precursors of chlorophyll into actual chlorophyll.
In one of the steps of the process, the enzyme that carries out the reaction requires iron in order to perform the reaction, so without iron the precursor can't progress from one step to the next and that means that the final product (chlorophyll) can not be made.

A yellowish (or lack of green) color can be an indication of iron deficiency in a plant (usually because the soil conditions are poor).

Hope this helps, we can help you with the details of the reaction if you need.

Elizabeth