Action of light rays on organic compounds, and the photosynthesis of organic from inorganic compounds in presence of inorganic colloids

Abstract

In a former paper by the present authors it was shown that sunlight in the presence of certain inorganic colloids, and notably of commonly occurring substances, such as colloidal ferric oxide or hydrate, possesses the power of acting upon water and carbonic acid, and yielding the energy necessary for the production of formaldehyde, from which carbohydrates and other organic constituents found in plants and animals might be built up. In a later paper it was shown by Moore that such inorganic compounds of iron occur associated in the chloroplasts of green plants, and especially marked in the lowlier green organisms, and hence that such photo-synthetic processes in which inorganic iron salts played the part of energy transformers might be regarded as taking a part in normal photo-synthesis in the plant.