Why in acute phorpyria?
Since porphyria is not one disease but many, I suppose that with "acute porphyria" you mean acute intermittent porphyria. The reason of the disease is an autosomal dominant mutation on the enzyme porphobilinogen deaminase, an enzyme that converts porphobilinogen to hydroxymethylbilane by a deamination reaction.

Now the heme is produced in many steps, and the enzyme above is important in the early steps of heme synthesis. In persons with porphyria, these heme precursors accumulate, causing toxicity. In acute porphyria the symptoms are mostly from the central nervous system. The figure under shows the steps of the biosynthesis of heme, and as you see at the upper right corner, defect in the enzyme porphobilinogen deaminase (PBG-deaminase) results in accumulation of porphobilinogen.


Glucose and other carbohydrates can help suppress disease activity, are given by vein or by mouth, and are part of initial treatment. Intravenous heme, however, is both more specific and effective than glucose and should be started if the patient’s symptoms fail to improve within 36 hours.http://www.porphyriafoundation.com/about-porphyria/types-of-porphyria/AIP [2015-05-02]

More about carbohydrates and the suppression of symptoms in porphyria http://www.porphyriafoundation.com/about-porphyria/diet-and-nutrition/the-glucose-effect-in-acute-porphyria [2015-05-02].