pigment

The substance in an object that reflects various elements of the light spectrum while absorbing others. The element of the spectrum that are reflected become the color, or pigment, visible to the human eye. In biology, a pigment is a genetic, natural substance that is responsible to giving color to plants and animals. Chlorophyll, for example, is a pigment that gives plants a variety of green colors, and melanin is a pigment that, to a varying degree, darkens human skin and animal fur.