Patent ID: 7319147

Claim:
N-confused tetrahydroxyphenyl and tetra-alkoxyphenyl prophyrins represented as: and the corresponding chlorins (dihydroporphyrins) and bacteriochlorins (tetrahydroporphyrins), including tautomers in all cases; and their metallates and salts, including internal salts: —OR 1 standing for a hydroxy group (R 1 =hydrogen) or an alkoxy group where R 1 is a branched or unbranched alkyl group containing from 1 to 4 carbon atoms, and where OR 1 may be at any position on the phenyl ring and there may be zero, one, two or three groups per phenyl ring provided at least one of the rings is substituted and —R standing for hydrogen, when IIB and IIA represent the same molecule, or R=X, a branched or unbranched alkyl group of 1 to 6 carbon atoms, or an aralkyl group the alkyl chain of which contains 1 to 3 carbon atoms, or alternatively R=XY where X is as defined above and Y consists of 1 to 3 substituents which are attached to any of the carbons in X and may be linked, and which are selected from: =—SO 3 H, CO 2 H and their C1 to C12 esters and amides; =—OH or OR 2 where R 2 =a polyhydroxylated alkyl chain from 1 to 20 carbon atoms; =—NR 3 R 4 where R 3 , R 4 are the same or different and may be hydrogen or an alkyl group of 1 to 12 carbon atoms or a polyhydroxylated alkyl chain or folic acid residue; =Z-P where P is an end-capped polyalkylene glycol group of molecular weight of 2,000 to 100,000 and Z is a linker group to attach P; R 5 =hydrogen, a halogen or a nitro group.