Stercobilinogen is a tetrapyrrole chemical compound that is the parent compound of stercobilin, the pigment that is responsible for the brown color of feces. Stercobilinogen is formed through the reduction of its parent compound uroblinogen. Urobilinogen is actually generated through the degradation of heme, the red pigment in haemoglobin and red blood cells (RBCs). RBCs have a life span of about 120 days. When the RBCs have reached the end of their useful lifespan, the cells are engulfed by macrophages and their constituents recycled or disposed of.  Heme is broken down when the heme ring is opened by the enzyme known as heme oxygenase, which is found in the endoplasmic reticulum of the macrophages. The oxidation process produces the linear tetrapyrrole known as biliverdin along with ferric iron (Fe3+), and carbon monoxide (CO). In the next reaction, a second methylene group (located between rings III and IV of the porphyrin ring) is reduced by the enzyme known as biliverdin reductase, producing bilirubin. Bilirubin is significantly less extensively conjugated than biliverdin. This reduction causes a change in the color of the biliverdin molecule from blue-green (vert or verd for green) to yellow-red, which is the color of bilirubin (ruby or rubi for red). In plasma virtually all the bilirubin is tightly bound to plasma proteins, largely albumin, because it is only sparingly soluble in aqueous solutions at physiological pH. In the sinusoids unconjugated bilirubin dissociates from albumin, enters the liver cells across the cell membrane through non-ionic diffusion to the smooth endoplasmatic reticulum. In hepatocytes, bilirubin-UDP-glucuronyltransferase (bilirubin-UGT) adds 2 additional glucuronic acid molecules to bilirubin to produce the more water-soluble version of the molecule known as bilirubin diglucuronide. The bilirubin diglucuronide is transferred rapidly across the canalicular membrane into the bile canaliculi where it is then excreted as bile into the large intestine.  The bilirubin is further degraded (reduced) by microbes present in the large intestine to form a colorless product known as urobilinogen. Urobilinogen that remains in the colon can either be reduced to stercobilinogen and finally oxidized to stercobilin, or it can be directly reduced to stercobilin. Stercobilinogen (aso known as L-urobilinogen) is closely related to two other compounds: mesobilirubinogen (also known as I-urobilinogen) and urobilinogen (also known as D-urobilinogen). Specifically, urobilinogen can be reduced to form mesobilirubinogen, and mesobilirubinogen can be further reduced to form stercobilinogen. Confusingly, however, all three of these compounds are frequently collectively referred to as "urobilinogens".