The word “Porphyria” originates from the Greek “porphyros”, meaning purple. During the Phoenician Era, wearing a purple garment meant having to harvest mollusks to obtain the dye. The process itself proved to be costly and laborious as about 250,000 mollusks were needed to produce just one ounce of the purple dye.1 As a result, purple apparel could only be afforded by the wealthy, and in effect began to symbolize royalty. However, the word “porphyria” may invoke the thought of royalty for another reason being that King George III of Great Britain was thought to have had porphyria. The Porphyrias comprise a group of metabolic disorders that result from an enzyme … Continue reading →