 
Chemiluminescence is the emission of light from a chemical reaction that
occurs at or near ambient temperatures. A vast number of reactions give
rise to the emission of light in solution, but only a few have
sufficiently high efficiencies of chemiluminescence to have been used
for analytical purposes. Bioluminescence is a luminescent process
mediated by an enzyme or other biological system. For further
information on the vast array of chemical reactions that produce light
please refer to excellent reviews by McCapra and Beheshti in "Bioluminescence
and Chemiluminescence: Instruments and Applications", 1985, Ed. K. Van
Dyke, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. pgs. 9-42; and by Schuster and Smith,
"Adv. Phys. Org. Chem.", 1982, 18, 187.
Coelenterate luciferin is the substrate for a number of marine
bioluminescent reactions, including those from Renilla, Aequorea and
Watesenia. In some of these reactions it is utilized as a simple
substrate being catalytically turned over in the bioluminescent
reaction, while in others, such as in the photoprotein systems of
Mneiopsis, it is incorporated as part of the photoprotein. h
Coelenterate luciferin is a coelenterate luciferin analog with high
recharging efficiency. The structures and reactions of these luciferins
are shown below.
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