The principal raw material for the production of steroid pharmaceuticals is diosgenin obtained from the Mexican plant Dioscorea. In light of the slow growth of diosgenin production, there is considerable interest in a more intensive use of stigma-sterol and cholesterol as raw materials (Fig. 1). One route from these sterols to the widely used steroid norethindrone involves initial conversion of the sterol to an intermediate called 1,4 androstadiene 3,17 dione (1,4 ADD). A number of bacteria are capable of transforming sterols to 1,4 ADD, synthesizing the necessary enzymes when steroids are present in their growth media (1,2). Mitsubishi Chemical Industries have recently developed a microbiological process to carry out this transformation (3). The possibility also exists of using bacterial extracts containing the appropriate enzymes to catalyze some or all of the steps in the process. Once the sterol side chain is oxidized to a 17 keto group, three enzymes from a strain of Pseudomonas testosteroni catalyze the remaining reactions in the process which are shown in Fig. 2 (4,5,6). Two problems must be solved before these enzymes can be reasonably applied to the conversion. One is that expensive electron acceptors must be recycled, and the other is that the enzymes must be in a form that allows them to be used in a continuous process or to be recovered at the end of each cycle of a batch process.
ADVERTISEMENT RETURN TO ISSUEPREVArticleNEXTPolymer-bound thiol for detection of disulfides in liquid chromatography eluatesJ. F. Studebaker, S. A. Slocum, and E. L. LewisCite this: Anal. Chem. 1978, 50, 11, 1500–1503Publication Date (Print):September 1, 1978Publication History Published online1 May 2002Published inissue 1 September 1978https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/ac50033a029https://doi.org/10.1021/ac50033a029research-articleACS PublicationsRequest reuse permissionsArticle Views85Altmetric-Citations18LEARN ABOUT THESE METRICSArticle Views are the COUNTER-compliant sum of full text article downloads since November 2008 (both PDF and HTML) across all institutions and individuals. These metrics are regularly updated to reflect usage leading up to the last few days.Citations are the number of other articles citing this article, calculated by Crossref and updated daily. Find more information about Crossref citation counts.The Altmetric Attention Score is a quantitative measure of the attention that a research article has received online. Clicking on the donut icon will load a page at altmetric.com with additional details about the score and the social media presence for the given article. Find more information on the Altmetric Attention Score and how the score is calculated. Share Add toView InAdd Full Text with ReferenceAdd Description ExportRISCitationCitation and abstractCitation and referencesMore Options Share onFacebookTwitterWechatLinked InRedditEmail Other access optionsGet e-Alertsclose Get e-Alerts
