Cholesteryl chromate

Diels acid is high melting and sparingly soluble and can be isolated easily even though present in very small amounts. One of us oxidized cholesterol with sodium dichromate dihydrate in benzene-acetic acid and isolated the Diels acid in yield of 2.97% along with 6 neutral oxidation products. One of these, A -cholestene-3-one, might be but is not a precursor of the Diels acid. Cholesteryl acid chromate would seem to offer an attractive possibility for intramolecular attack of the allylic /3-hydrogen at C,. The active species in the hypobromite oxidation may be the hypobromite of cholesterol. 

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