P450 enzymes are ubiquitous in nature and carry out a wide range of important reactions including the activation of carbon centers for catabolism, steroid metabolism, and detoxification of xenobiotics (1). Due to the important physiological functions of P450 enzymes, the reaction intermediates of P450 chemistry have been a subject of investigation for many years. Several discreet steps occur in the hydroxylation chemistry of the cytochrome P450s including: substrate binding, first electron transfer to the P450 from a physiological redox partner, oxygen binding (to form oxy-P450), a second electron transfer event (to form a reduced oxy or peroxo state), proton transfer to the distal oxygen (forming hydroperoxo), and an oxygen scission event producing a putative high valent iron-oxo species that subsequently generates hydroxylated product (2). The high valent iron-oxo has long been thought to be analogous to the activated iron species characterized in other oxidative enzymes (horseradish peroxidase (HRP), 1 catalase, and chloroperoxidase (CPO)) and referred to as Compound I, a ferryl-oxo-() porphyrin cation radical (3-5). The intermediates in the complex P450 reaction cycle have been gradually divulged through the use of a wide range of spectroscopic techniques (6 -8) and the use of methods that allow access to the fast steps occurring after O 2 binding (2, 9). Recently the peroxo and hydroperoxo intermediates have been observed through the use of cryoenzymology techniques combined with radiolysis, generating these intermediates through gradual temperature annealing (2, 10). Although there has been no identification of a Compound I intermediate by these techniques, it has been inferred by indirect measurements (2,11,12). The Compound I state as well as the peroxo and hydroperoxo states of the enzyme have been proposed to be active in oxygenation events (13,14).To probe the nature of Compound I, meta-chloroperoxybenzoic acid (m-CPBA) has been used as an oxidizing agent to produce this high valent iron-oxo through heterolytic cleavage of the organic peroxide in CPO and HRP. The Compound I species of CPO and HRP have sufficient half-lives for resonance Raman and EPR studies and have been well characterized (3,5,(15)(16)(17). The same peroxy acid and its derivatives have been used with P450s in attempts to generate intermediates. Evidence for the existence of Compound I in P450s was demonstrated through substrate oxygenation or hydroxylation in the reaction of various organic peroxides with either liver microsomal P450 or CYP101, respectively (18,19,21).Contrary to the evidence for Compound I formation in cytochrome P450 using m-CPBA, Blake and Coon (20) reported that the reactions of several peroxy acids with CYP2B4 generated other active species, which are neither Compound I nor its one-electron-reduced adduct (Compound II). However, in previous studies the generation of the Compound I intermediate in cytochrome P450 (CYP101) required a large excess of peroxyacid, leading to the rapid formation, then conversion of ...