Chlorophyll, the Sheppard of Light in BAC

Energy from light is received somewhat directly as sunlight, but it is received in much greater amounts from our food. The chemical energy stored by photosynthesis in carbohydrates drives biochemical reactions in nearly all living organisms. Releasing the forces of light from food requires a balance disassembly of starches, sugars, and fats that are the bearers of light. Chlorophyll is the shepherd of light energy – in the central atom of the chlorophyll molecule is magnesium where the sun’s light is gathered for releasing the sugars, starches, and fats from which we will eventually get our energy. Magnesium is omnipresent in the catabolic steps in which we disassemble sugars and fats in our metabolic fire : the Krebs (citric acid) cycle. In this photosynthetic reaction (Krebs cycle), carbon dioxide is reduced by water; in other words, electrons are transferred from water to carbon dioxide. Chlorophyll assists this transfer. When chlorophyll absorbs light energy, an electron in chlorophyll is excited from a lower energy state to a higher energy state. In this higher energy state, this electron is more readily transferred to another molecule. This starts a chain of electron-transfer steps, which ends with an electron transferred to carbon dioxide. Meanwhile, the chlorophyll which gave up an electron can accept an electron from another molecule. This is the end of a process which starts with the removal of an electron from water. Thus, chlorophyll is at the center of the photosynthetic oxidation-reduction reaction between carbon dioxide and water.