Natural pigments containing a fundamental skeleton of four pyrrole nuclei united through
the α-positions by four methine groups to form a macrocyclic structure (porphyrin
is designated porphine in Chemical Abstracts indexes).
Source:
PAC, 1995, 67, 1307
(Glossary of class names of organic compounds and reactivity intermediates based on
structure (IUPAC Recommendations 1995))
on page 1360