Lava Purple Epicocconone is a long Stokes' shift fluorogenic natural product found in the fungus Epicoccum nigrum.

[1] Though weakly fluorescent in water (green emission, 520 nm) it reacts covalently yet reversibly with primary amines such as those in proteins to yield a product with a strong orange-red emission (610 nm).

[2] Epicoconone is notable because it the first covalent/reversible/turn-on fluorophore to be discovered and is a natural product with a new fluorescent scaffold.

[2] Additionally, this dye can be used as a sensitive total protein stain for 1D and 2D electrophoresis,[3] quantitative determination of protein concentration,[4] making it a powerful loading control for Western blots.

[6] With respect to protein staining properties there are few differences between natural and synthetic analogs.