Zygogonium ericetorum is an acid and desiccation tolerant filamentous green algae that thrives in extreme
habitats. A purple pigment which accumulates in the vacuoles of sun exposed layers
of Z. ericatorum algae has remained unidentified for over fifty years. In this work, samples of the
algae were collected from acid bogs in Yellowstone National Park, WY. The purple pigment
was isolated and characterized by NMR, mass, IR, UV, EPR, X-ray, and 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy. The purple pigment was found to be a highly branched polymer
of glucose containing traces of ester linked polyphenolic moieties such as gallic
acid (1). The purple color of the polysaccharide is due to complexation of the polyphenolic
groups by ferric iron in a bis (L2Fe3+) configuration (2).
