Uteroverdin, the green pigment of the dog's placenta

Abstract

In investigations made by one of us (in collaboration with P. Rothschild (1931)) on the blood content of the canine uterus, difficulties arose in the hæmoglobin determinations owing to the presence of a green pigment in that organ. The other author (Lemberg, 1931) had at the time just investigated the green pigment contained in the egg-shells of many birds and had isolated its methyl-ester in crystalline form; he at once realised that the pigment mentioned above was of the same nature and furnished a profitable field for investigation. We must here thank Professor Keilin for his valuable help in the preliminary stages of the research. There is considerable literature on the subject in papers of Medicine and Anatomy, but so far as modem physiological and biochemical publications are concerned, it has been forgotten, there being no recent chemical work on the subject.