Phase homogeneity and crystal morphology of the malaria pigment beta-hematin

Hemoglobin digestion in the intraerythrocytic trophozoite stages of the malaria parasite releases large quantities of heme, which is then detoxified by crystallization into regular crystallites, which are subsequently secreted into the host vascular network as malaria pigment. This crystalline product is isostructural with the synthetic phase b-hematin, and its structure, solved from its powder diffraction pattern, (Pagola et al., 2000), corresponds to a hydrogen bonded chain of propionate linked dimers, Figure 1. This is an example where the crystalline phase is the macromolecule of direct biological interest, particularly in light of the currently accepted hypothesis for the quinoline antimalarial drug action being the inhibition of b-hematin formation and biosynthesis. A surprisingly array of spectroscopically similar closely related phases can also form during the reactions which are used to synthesize b-hematin. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray powder diffraction have been used to characterize these materials. Taken together these results indicate that infrared spectroscopy, in itself, is insufficient to identify synthetic analogs to malaria pigment and that a combination of electronmicroscopy and powder diffraction are required to unambiguously characterize these heme aggregates.