Formation Structure of a vanadium porphyrin compound (left) extracted from petroleum by Alfred E. Treibs, father of organic geochemistry. Treibs noted the close structural similarity of this molecule and chlorophyll a (right). Petroleum is a fossil fuel derived from ancient fossilized organic materials, such as zooplankton and algae. Vast quantities of these remains settled to sea or lake bottoms, mixing with sediments and being buried under anoxic conditions. As further layers settled to the sea or lake bed, intense heat and pressure built up in the lower regions. This process caused the organic matter to change, first into a waxy material known as kerogen, which is found in various oil shales around the world, and then with more heat into liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons via a process known as catagenesis. Formation of petroleum occurs from hydrocarbon pyrolysis in a variety of mainly endothermic
central nervous system, and is mediated by proteins (Earnshaw et al. 1999). Since the the caspase enzyme system. As a result of the primary in vivo function of caspases is to slaughter process, the muscle tissue will be enzymatically degrade cellular structures deprived of oxygen and nutrients due to the (Creagh and Martin 2001), in regards to meat loss of the blood supply. The hypothesis is tenderization it has been postulated that that under these anoxic conditions, the muscle caspases would probably initially degrade cells will have no alternative but to initiate proteins involved in the spatial organization apoptosis, which through the caspase system of myofibrils and that further degradation would induce a series of biochemical and of cellular components would proceed with structural changes important in the tenderiza- the contribution of additional proteolytic tion process