THE EXTRACTION OF ANDROGENS FROM URINE

Methods of extracting steroids from urine for the purpose of clinical assays for sex hormone have had various disadvantages, including that of not being quantitative, of employing solvents which are highly inflammable or toxic, or of requiring the use of cumbersome equipment. An investigation of dibutyl ether† proves it to be an excellent solvent for the extraction of androgens from human male urine and its use obviates the difficulties just mentioned. To test the efficacy of this solvent and to determine the most satisfactory manner of using it, eleven 2200 cc. samples, taken from a large specimen of mixed human male urine, were extracted by various methods. The extracts were assayed for androgens by the methods of Gallagher and Koch1 using 10 birds for each extract. The results (table 1) are expressed in average mm. comb-growth (length plus height), corrected to 57 mm. Sample 2 was extracted by the method of Gallagher and Koch2 which is the most quantitative of the methods which we have previously used....