is melanin a chemical

Best answer

Neutral chemical substance

People also ask

A hand with an uneven distribution of melanin. Also called pigment, melanin is a substance that gives the skin and hair its natural color. It also gives color to the iris of the eye, feathers, and scales. In humans, those with darker skin have higher amounts of melanin. By contrast, those with less pigment have lighter or more fair skin coloring.

Biochemical Mechanism. Melanin is the pigment that produces the wide variation seen in skin and hair color in humans. Melanin is synthesized by cells in the skin and hair follicles called melanocytes. Two major classes of melanin are known: eumelanin, a brown-black pigment; and pheomelanin, an orange-to-red pigment.

Melanin-containing cells, including catecholaminergic (CA) cells in the brain and melanocytes of the hair and skin, pigment cells in the inner ear, iris, and choroid of the eye, originate from the neural crest. However, the synthesis pathway, chemical structure, and function of melanin are quite different in the neural versus peripheral cells.

Hair, skin, and eye color in people and animals mostly depends on the type and amount of melanin they have. Special skin cells called melanocytes make melanin. Everyone has the same number of melanocytes, but some people make more melanin than others.