Where does this come from, and can I check it?

Red cell haem is recycled into a yellow-green compound that leaves the body in bile. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.

Is this really a human body fact?

Yes. It sits on the Human Body shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.

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The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.

Mondo Knows Facts

Broken haemoglobin becomes the pigment bilirubin

Red cell haem is recycled into a yellow-green compound that leaves the body in bile Macrophages in the spleen and liver dismantle old red cells and split haem into iron, globin and a green pigment called biliverdin. Biliverdin is reduced to yellow bilirubin, which binds albumin for the trip to the liver. The liver conjugates it and releases it into bile for the gut to remove. It sits in Mondo's human body collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.

Where this comes from

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

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Science trivia

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Tags: bilirubin, liver, blood

Broken haemoglobin becomes the pigment bilirubin: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?: Red cell haem is recycled into a yellow-green compound that leaves the body in bile. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a human body fact?: Yes. It sits on the Human Body shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?: The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.