Medicine: Good, Green Fun

The chlorophyll craze which has been sweeping the U.S. for two years or more has no justification in scientific fact, the American Chemical Society heard last week from a topflight chemist, Professor Alsoph H. Corwin of Johns Hopkins.

In the first place, said Chemist Corwin, little is known about the action of true chlorophyll in the human body, and most of the technical literature on the subject is full of myths. Anyhow, the material used by manufacturers of green pills, chewing gum, toothpaste and mouthwash is not natural chlorophyll: it has been altered chemically and sometimes contains copper. Much of it is labeled “copper chlorophyllin,” and even this is a misnomer, said Corwin, because a “phyllin” is a magnesium derivative; when copper replaces the magnesium, it’s something else again.

Various chlorophyll preparations have been touted as tonics, as germ killers, promoters of wound healing and deodorants. There is not a shred of reliable evidence that they are any good for any of these purposes, said Dr. Corwin. Moreover, he added, some researchers fear that they may release a group of compounds called porphyrins. If porphyrins get into the bloodstream, they can make a patient so sensitive to light that he must spend months in a darkened room. (A white mouse injected with porphyrins may flourish in the dark, but will drop dead the instant it is exposed to the light-shock of a photo flashbulb.) Since no such accidents to humans have been reported, Dr. Corwin concludes that the chlorophyll products are not getting into the bloodstream.

“Chlorophyll,” said Chemist Corwin in summation, “is indispensable to photosynthesis. It is highly esthetic in coloring the vistas visible from hills or mountains. It furnishes chemists, physiologists and other scientists with a lot of good, clean fun. For other purposes, we are not certain that it has any value.”