Talk:Luciferin

Pigment
Is luciferin a pigment? I think it PRODUCES light by means of a chemical reaction (even in darkness). A pigment doesn't produce light but REFLECTS some wave lenghts of light and absorbs others. The wave leghts it reflects produce in our eyes the perception of color. Am I wrong?--Miguelferig (talk) 18:03, 7 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Good catch. Pigments absorb not emit light.  Luciferins may also be pigments, but this is incidental to their main function to emit light when oxidized.  Hence calling them pigments is misleading and confusing.  I have therefore changed the wiki link from biological pigment to heterocyclic compound, since it appears that all luciferins are heterocycles. Boghog (talk) 12:52, 8 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Likewise it's in the category "Fluorescent dyes", which reinforces the common misconception that luminescence and fluorescence are the same phenomenon. Nanderson95 (talk) 02:50, 5 June 2019 (UTC)
 * It's true that these are all separate concepts that are easily confused. But it's also apparently true that luciferins have all three properties. I think that having them separately in a list helps distinguish them from each other (otherwise why would there be separate terms listed?). DMacks (talk) 03:00, 5 June 2019 (UTC)