Corticosteroids Sitosterol

Sitosterol is an abundant and low-cost raw material for the production of pharmaceutical steroids. 4-Androstene-3,17-dione, the precursor for the synthesis of corticosteroid hormones, can be derived from the side-chain cleavage of/3-sitosterol. Immobilized cells of Mycobacterium sp. NRRL B-3805 on Celite matrix (80-120 mesh) was found to be effective in cleaving the side chain of /3-sitosterol (5gL ) with a molar conversion yield of 70% in 50 h [30],... 

At the end of the I970 s the microbial processes for side chain degradation of cholesterol and sitosterol to androsta-1,4-diene-3,17-dione, androst-4-ene-3,17-dione, and its 9a-hydroxy derivative had been developed to such a state of industrial efficiency that these new raw material sources now serve for the economic production of most of the medically important S. The only exceptions are some corticosteroids, especially those with substituents at C-16, which are still prepared from steroid sapogenins, and a number of 19-nor-S. for which high-yield total syntheses are available. For details on the analysis of S., see Lit.. ... 

S. is an important starting material for steroid synthesis. The steroid is extracted together with P-sitosterol [83-46-5]), which differs from s. only by a double bond in the aliphatic side chain. This crude s. is subjected to microbiological degradation to yield 4-andiosten-3,17-dione and 1,4-an-drostadien-3,17-dione (asteroids). The production of corticosteroids is an important outlet of s. 

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