Medicine steroids

Diosgenin (Fig. 4) is a steroid sapogenin produced by Dioscorea species. This natural product is used as a precursor for the commercial synthesis of medicinal steroids such as prednisolone, dexamethasone, norethisterone, and metenolone, among others. Microtuber-derived cell suspensions of Dioscorea doryophora were able to accumulate diosgenin at concentrations as high as 3.5% g dw. Embryogenic callus of Tribulus terrestris were also able to accumulate diosgenin (170.7 1.0 pg/g dw). ... 

The isoprenoids consist of terpenes and steroids. Terpenes are an enormous group of molecules that are found largely in the essential oils of plants. (Essential oils are plant extracts used for thousands of years in perfumes and medicines.) Steroids are derivatives of the hydrocarbon ring system of cholesterol. 

The pharmaceutical industry has developed and studied a number of anabolic steroids for use in vet erinary medicine and in rehabilitation from injuries that are accompanied by deterioration of muscles The ideal agent would be one that possessed the an abolic properties of testosterone without its andro genic (masculinizing) effects Methandrostenolone (Dianabol) and stanozolol are among the many syn thetic anabolic steroids that require a prescription... 

The path from squalene (114) to the corresponding oxide and thence to lanosterol [79-63-0] (126), C qH qO, cholesterol [57-88-5] (127), and cycloartenol [469-38-5] (128) (Fig. 6) has been demonstrated in nonphotosynthetic organisms. It has not yet been demonstrated that there is an obligatory path paralleling the one known for generation of plant sterols despite the obvious stmctural relationships of, for example, cycloartenol (128), C qH qO, to cyclobuxine-D (129), C25H42N2O. The latter, obtained from the leaves of Buxus sempervirens E., has apparentiy found use medicinally for many disorders, from skin and venereal diseases to treatment of malaria and tuberculosis. In addition to cyclobuxine-D [2241-90-9] (129) from the Buxaceae, steroidal alkaloids are also found in the Solanaceae, Apocynaceae, and LiUaceae. 

Efforts toward producing synthetic steroids, particularly cortisol, expanded during World War II to enable researchers to explore the possibiUty of medicinal appHcations of corticosteroids. In 1948, the discovery that cortisone dramatically alleviates the symptoms of arthritis led to intensive research on the antiinflammatory properties of corticosteroids. The development of partial and total syntheses for the commercial preparation of cortisone, alternative methods for producing cortisone, and the search for more potent antiinflammatory analogues gready stimulated both academic and industrial steroid research. 

Benzoyl-2,3-dihydro-lH-pyrrolizine-l-cai boxylic acid (ketorolac, L ) and 2-(3-benzoyl-phenyl)propionic acid (ketoprofen, L ) ai e biologically activ ligands used in medicine as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory dmgs. 

The modification and enhancement of biological activity of drugs and hormones by fluorination represent one of the most fruitful recent developments in medicinal chemistry. Its first successes and most interesting subsequent developments were in the steroid field. Almost every new technique of introducing fluorine into organic compounds has been applied in this area and, as a result of both the gross and subtle chemical differences which steroids display at different locations of the nucleus, has produced a wealth of new chemistry. 

J. E., Synthesis and release of contraceptive steroids from bio-erodible poly(ortho esters), in Polymers in Medicine (E. Chielini and P. Giusti, eds.). Plenum Publishing, New York, 1983, pp. 169-178. 

---