The reaction of ferrous ascaris perienteric fluid hemoglobin with hydrogen peroxide.

Hydrogen peroxide reacts with ferrous Ascaris hemoglobin and converts it to oxyhemoglobin in a sequence of two reactions. The first is the reaction of ferrous Ascaris hemoglobin with hydrogen peroxide to form a stable product; the second is the reaction of this product with hydrogen peroxide to form oxyhemoglobin. Both reactions follow second order kinetics, since they are first order with respect to each of the reactants. They proceed without detectable intermediates, and, therefore, appear to be single step, two electron oxidations. The stable product of the reaction of ferrous Ascaris hemoglobin with hydrogen peroxide is believed to be at the formal oxidation state IV. The optical spectrum of this product strongly suggests that the heme iron atom is best described as low spin ferric heme iron (d;5).