卟啉

bǔlín

noun

Meanings

1 porphyrin (organic chemical, loanword)
2 the pigment family that includes heme and chlorophyll

Characters

transliteration syllable (por-)

transliteration syllable (-phyrin)

Examples

血红蛋白和叶绿素都含有卟啉环。

Xuèhóng dànbái hé yèlǜsù dōu hányǒu bǔlín huán.

Both hemoglobin and chlorophyll contain a porphyrin ring.

卟啉症是一种代谢疾病。

Bǔlínzhèng shì yī zhǒng dàixiè jíbìng.

Porphyria is a metabolic disease.

Tips

memory

卟 (bǔ) and 啉 (lín) were coined just to transliterate 'porphyrin' — both characters use the 口 (mouth) radical, the standard signal for a phonetic loanword in chemistry.

Stroke Order

卟 bǔ

啉 lín