04655 IUPAC Gold Book - photosynthesis 10.1351/goldbook.P04655 P04655 current 1 A metabolic process involving plants and some types of bacteria (e.g. Chromatiaceae, Rhodospirillaceae, Chlorobiaceae) in which light energy absorbed by chlorophyll and other photosynthetic pigments results in the reduction of $\ce{CO2}$ followed by the formation of organic compounds. In plants the overall process involves the conversion of $\ce{CO2}$ and $\ce{H2O}$ to carbohydrates (and other plant material) and the release of $\ce{O2}$. carbohydrates https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/C00820 PAC, 1990, 62, 2167. 'Glossary of atmospheric chemistry terms (Recommendations 1990)' on page 2207 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199062112167) PAC, 1992, 64, 143. 'Glossary for chemists of terms used in biotechnology (IUPAC Recommendations 1992)' on page 162 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199264010143) https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/P04655/html https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/P04655/json https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/P04655/plain Citation: 'photosynthesis' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.P04655 The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms. If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org . The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using. 2026-08-03T23:34:18+00:00