Steroids and hormones

At the Seoul Olympics 1988 the Canadian athlete Ben Johnson was stripped of his gold medal and the title of the fastest runner ever for taking a banned substance, an anabolic steroid. So what are steroids and why are they banned from athletics  

Dwain Chambers, the European 100 metres sprint champion, was found guilty in February 2004 of taking a designer steroid , THG, and banned from athletics for 2 years. He appealed on the grounds that THG was chemically related to banned substances but was itself not a material that constituted a doping offence. 

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One of the pivotal papers to raise awareness of the issue of PIE, particularly in the United States, was the US Geological Survey (USGS) National Reconnaissance programme on pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other wastewater contaminants in United States streams [10]. The work provided the first nationwide survey for these contaminants in the United States, and the results were, to many people, startling. The study analyzed samples from a network of 139 streams across the country for 95 organic wastewater contaminants (OWCs) including 30 veterinary and human antibiotics and prescription medications and 14 artificial and naturally occurring steroids and hormones. Out of the 95 OWCs analyzed, 82 were detected in at least one sample and at least one OWC was detected in 80% of the samples collected. 

For separation by adsorption, adsorption capacity is often the most important parameter because it determines how much adsorbent is required to accomplish a certain task. For the adsorption of a variety of antibiotics, steroids, and hormons, the adsorption isotherm relating the amount of solute bound to solid and that in solvent can be described by the empirical Freundlich equation. 

A future product from the neutral fraction of tall oil may be sistosterol. This chemical has potential use in the synthesis of cortisones and other steroids and hormones by fermentation processes. 

In the 1930s research on the isolation of progesterone, a steroid and hormone, from natural sources led to synthetic pathways for their manufacture. Research led to the development of steroids used as contraceptives. Others were developed as anti-inflammatory steroids. Other steroids have been developed to treat breast cancer and another for prostate cancer. 

Fuhrmann, U. (2006) 12th international Congress on Hormonal Steroids and Hormones Cancer, Athens. 

One of the most popular adsorption isotherm equations used for liquids was proposed by Freundlich in 1926. This isotherm has been used to describe a wide range of of pharmaceutical products hke antibiotics, steroids, and hormones [87]. This isotherm is given by the following equation... 

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