Naturally occurring hormones

Cholesterol (Section 26 11) The most abundant steroid in am mals and the biological precursor to other naturally occur ring steroids including the bile acids sex hormones and corticosteroids... 

Miscellaneous Pharmaceutical Processes. Solvent extraction is used for the preparation of many products that ate either isolated from naturally occurring materials or purified during synthesis. Among these are sulfa dmgs, methaqualone [72-44-6] phenobarbital [50-06-6] antihistamines, cortisone [53-06-5] estrogens and other hormones (qv), and reserpine [50-55-5] and alkaloids (qv). Common solvents for these appHcations are chloroform, isoamyl alcohol, diethyl ether, and methylene chloride. Distribution coefficient data for dmg species are important for the design of solvent extraction procedures. These can be determined with a laboratory continuous extraction system (AKUEVE) (244). 

Estrogens are a group of naturally occurring steroid sex hormones which are characterized by their ability to induce estms in the female mammal. They are derivatives of the planar tetracycHc stmcture estra-l,3,5(10)-trien-3-ol [53-63-4](V) and the three principal estrogens in humans are estrone [56-16-7] (E ) (2), estradiol [50-28-2] (E2) (3), andestriol [50-27-1] (E ) (4). 

The discovery in 1954 that fluorination of the glucocorticoid hormone cortisol could bring about remarkable changes in the biological properties of the hormone was entirely unexpected and violated the then prevalent belief that synthetic variants could not surpass a naturally occurring hormone in its biological activity. Because of the impact that fluorination of steroids has had on subsequent developments in this area the history of the discovery of fluorocortisol will be briefly recounted. 

With very few exceptions, the biological activities of synthetic steroids tend to parallel those of the naturally occurring hormones on which they are patterned. Compounds with distant pharmacological activity are, as a rule, quite rare. It is thus intriguing that inclusion of a tertiary amine at the 11 position of a pregnane leads to a compound with activity far removed from its close analogues. The agent in question, minaxalone (47), exhibits anesthetic activity. 

Hydrocortisone, a naturally occurring hormone produced in the adrenal glands, is often used to treat inflammation, severe allergies, and numerous other conditions. Is the indicated -OH group in the molecule axial or equatorial ... 

Lipids are naturally occurring organic molecules that have limited solubility in water and can be isolated from organisms by extraction with nonpolar organic solvents. Fats, oils, waxes, many vitamins and hormones, and most nonprotein cell-meznbrane components are examples. Note that this definition differs from the sort used for carbohydrates and proteins in that lipids are defined by a physical property (solubility) rather than by structure. Of the many kinds of lipids, we ll be concerned in this chapter only with a few triacvlglycerols, eicosanoids, terpenoids, and steroids. 

Calcitonin is a naturally occurring mammalian hormone that plays a major role in regulation of calcium levels. It inhibits bone resorption by binding to osteoclast receptors. Compared with mammalian calcitonin, salmon calcitonin has high potency and extended duration of action. Although commercial formulations of calcitonin-salmon actually are synthetic and not derived from salmon, they contain the same amino acid sequence as calcitonin of salmon origin. 

Has no action when binding on its own to the receptor but only modulates the actions of the naturally occurring hormone or neurotransmitter when it is released. Therefore, the temporal aspects of the natural signaling mechanism are retained and desensitization is minimized. 

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