Open Access

Günter Reske, Fritz Nimmerfall, Joachim Stauff

• Interactions of eosin with three different substrates, β-lactoglobuline, bovine serum albumin and cysteine, in aqueous solutions of pH 7 under illumination with light of wavelengths 5200—5400 Å are investigated by changes in absorption spectrum characteristics, SH-group activities and phosphorescence intensities. Only with bovine serum albumin the major part of protein conversion, as shown by spectral changes and diminution of SH-groups due to eosin-sensitized photo-oxidation. In β-lactoglobuline an oxidizing photoreaction occurs, by which eosin is vanishing to the same degree as the protein shows loss of SH-groups and spectral alterations indicating attack on aromatic amino acid residues. There is no red shift of the eosin absorption band at 5170 Å as is observed in solutions of bovine serum albumin, where the intensity of phosphorscence is about 100 fold compared with the intensity obtained by solutions of β-lactoglobulin. The aerobic eosin photoreaction in solutions of β-lactoglobulin is faster than aerobic photobleaching of the dye. Still faster is its bleaching photoreaction with cysteine, which is nearly independent of oxygen.