The pigment of Codium fragile chlorophyll

  1. 藻類
  2. The pigment of Codium fragile chlorophyll
This sea sponge look alike Codium fragile (en:Dead man's Finger, ja:海松 or ミル) indeed is a green alga (Chlorophyta).

Dead Man's Finger (Codium fragile)



The deep green color, miru-iro, of the alga has been the symbol of royal music performers as well as for celebration in ancient Japan since Heian era. The color appears in literature in Edo period for dyeing clothes in miru-iro as an irreversible act in one of these days. In hexadecimal RGB representation, the miru-iro color is #6E6B41.

Siphonaxanthin



The color of the alga is due to its cartenoid pigment, siphonaxanthin (3,3′,19-trihydroxy-7,8-dihydro-8-oxo-a-carotene) and its esterified form siphonein, which are present in deep water green marine algae [*].

The entire alga body consists of cells connected to each other so this is multi-nuclei single cell algae.