A steroid is a biologically active organic compound with four rings arranged in a specific molecular configuration. Steroids have two principal biological functions: as important components of cell membranes that alter membrane fluidity; and as signaling molecules. Hundreds of steroids are found in plants, animals and fungi. All steroids are manufactured in cells from the sterols lanosterol (opisthokonts) or cycloartenol (plants). Lanosterol and cycloartenol are derived from the cyclization of the triterpene squalene.
In chemistry, a glycoside is a molecule in which a sugar is bound to another functional group via a glycosidic bond. Glycosides play numerous important roles in living organisms. Many plants store chemicals in the form of inactive glycosides. These can be activated by enzyme hydrolysis, which causes the sugar part to be broken off, making the chemical available for use. Many such plant glycosides are used as medications. Several species of Heliconius butterfly are capable of incorporating these plant compounds as a form of chemical defense against predators. In animals and humans, poisons are often bound to sugar molecules as part of their elimination from the body.
Saponins, also selectively referred to as triterpene glycosides, are bitter-tasting usually toxic plant-derived organic chemicals that have a foamy quality when agitated in water. They are widely distributed but found particularly in soapwort, a flowering plant, the soapbark tree and soybeans. They are used in soaps, medicines, fire extinguishers, speciously as dietary supplements, for synthesis of steroids, and in carbonated beverages. Saponins are both water and fat soluble, which gives them their useful soap properties. Some examples of these chemicals are glycyrrhizin and quillaia, a bark extract used in beverages.
The Robinson annulation is a chemical reaction used in organic chemistry for ring formation. It was discovered by Robert Robinson in 1935 as a method to create a six membered ring by forming three new carbon–carbon bonds. The method uses a ketone and a methyl vinyl ketone to form an α,β-unsaturated ketone in a cyclohexane ring by a Michael addition followed by an aldol condensation. This procedure is one of the key methods to form fused ring systems.
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic & lipophilic. Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated lipids that are liquid at room temperature.
The Zincke–Suhl reaction is a special case of a Friedel-Crafts alkylation and was first described by Theodor Zincke and Suhl in 1906. Unlike the traditional Friedel-Crafts reaction, the reduction of the phenyl ring leads to a higher energy final product that can be used as starting material in the dienol–benzene rearrangement, among other reactions.
Oppenauer oxidation, named after Rupert Viktor Oppenauer, is a gentle method for selectively oxidizing secondary alcohols to ketones.
Diosgenin, a phytosteroid sapogenin, is the product of hydrolysis by acids, strong bases, or enzymes of saponins, extracted from the tubers of Dioscorea wild yam species, such as the Kokoro. The sugar-free (aglycone) product of such hydrolysis, diosgenin is used for the commercial synthesis of cortisone, pregnenolone, progesterone, and other steroid products.
The Marker degradation is a three-step synthetic route in steroid chemistry developed by American chemist Russell Earl Marker in 1938–1940. It is used for the production of cortisone and mammalian sex hormones from plant steroids, and established Mexico as a world center for steroid production in the years immediately after World War II. The discovery of the Marker degradation allowed the production of substantial quantities of steroid hormones for the first time, and was fundamental in the development of the contraceptive pill and corticosteroid anti-inflammatory drugs. In 1999, the American Chemical Society and the Sociedad Química de México named the route as an International Historic Chemical Landmark.
Pregnane, also known as 17β-ethylandrostane or as 10β,13β-dimethyl-17β-ethylgonane, is a C21 steroid and, indirectly, a parent of progesterone. It is a parent hydrocarbon for two series of steroids stemming from 5α-pregnane and 5β-pregnane (17β-ethyletiocholane). It has a gonane core.
Melengestrol is a steroidal progestin of the 17α-hydroxyprogesterone group and an antineoplastic drug which was never marketed. An acylated derivative, melengestrol acetate, is used as a growth promoter in animals.
Panaxatriol is an organic compound that is an aglycone of ginsenosides, a group of steroid glycosides. It is a dammarane-type tetracyclic triterpene sapogenin found in ginseng and in notoginseng. It is formed by the dehydration of protopanaxatriol.
Protopanaxadiol (PPD) is an organic compound that is an aglycone of ginsenosides, a group of steroid glycosides. It is a dammarane-type tetracyclic terpene sapogenin found in ginseng and in notoginseng.
Protopanaxatriol (PPT) is an organic compound that is an aglycone of ginsenosides, a group of steroid glycosides. It is a dammarane-type tetracyclic triterpene sapogenins found in ginseng and in notoginseng.
Sarsasapogenin is a steroidal sapogenin, that is the aglycosidic portion of a plant saponin. It is named after sarsaparilla, a family of climbing plants found in subtropical regions. It was one of the first sapogenins to be identified, and the first spirostan steroid to be identified as such. The identification of the spirostan structure, with its ketone spiro acetal functionality, was fundamental in the development of the Marker degradation, which allowed the industrial production of progesterone and other sex hormones from plant steroids.
Estrane is a C18 steroid derivative, with a gonane core.
Robert Kenneth Callow, FRS was a British biochemist. He worked at the National Institute for Medical Research in Hampstead and Mill Hill, where his work on steroids included contributions to the isolation and characterisation of vitamin D, and the synthesis of cortisone from naturally occurring steroids. After he retired from the NIMR in 1966 he worked on insect pheromones at Rothamsted Experimental Station until 1971.
Biomimetic synthesis is an area of organic chemical synthesis that is specifically biologically inspired. The term encompasses both the testing of a "biogenetic hypothesis" through execution of a series of reactions designed to parallel the proposed biosynthesis, as well as programs of study where a synthetic reaction or reactions aimed at a desired synthetic goal are designed to mimic one or more known enzymic transformations of an established biosynthetic pathway. The earliest generally cited example of a biomimetic synthesis is Sir Robert Robinson's organic synthesis of the alkaloid tropinone.
Allyltestosterone, or 17α-allyltestosterone, also known as 17α-allylandrost-4-en-17β-ol-3-one, is a steroid derived from testosterone that was first synthesized in 1936 and was never marketed. Along with propyltestosterone (topterone), it has been patented as a topical antiandrogen and hair growth inhibitor. Allyltestosterone is the parent structure of two marketed 19-nortestosterone progestins, allylestrenol and altrenogest. These progestins are unique among testosterone derivatives in that they appear to be associated with few or no androgenic effects.
16-Dehydropregnenolone acetate (16-DPA) is a chemical compound used as an intermediate or synthon in the production of many semisynthetic steroids. As 7-ACA is for cephalosporins and 6-APA is for penicillins, 16-DPA is for steroids. While it is not easy to synthesize, it is a convenient intermediate which can be made from other more available materials, and which can then be modified to produce the desired target compound.
