A compound or substance derived from hemoglobin or blood iron; a chemical component related to blood pigments.
From hema- (blood) plus -phein (possibly from phaein, to show or appear, or relating to phaein- compounds in chemistry). The exact etymology is uncertain but relates to hemoglobin chemistry.
Hemaphein belongs to that fascinating frontier of 19th-century chemistry when scientists were just beginning to understand what makes blood red and how oxygen gets carried!
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