Word: ergosterol
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Died. Adolf Windaus, 82, Berlin-born chemist who won the 1928 Nobel Prize for converting the substance ergosterol to antirachitic vitamin D, was the first to crystallize a vitamin (D in 1931), contributed valuable research to the use of sex hormones and digitalis; of a heart attack; in Göttingen, Germany...
Last week the first synthetic production of theelin was announced in the American Chemical Society's Journal by Dr. Russell E. Marker and his associate, Thomas S. Oakwood, of Pennsylvania State College. From yeast Researchers Marker & Oakwood obtained ergosterol, an organic compound related to Vitamin D-producing cholesterol. From an ergosterol derivative, which they acetylated, oxidized with chromic acid, hydrolized and distilled, they built up the white crystals of theelin...
...triumph. In the past he showed that the Chinese shrub Ma Huang was good, ancient medicine because the ephedrine which it contains relieves congestion in cold-ridden noses and stimulates poky hearts. He showed that toad venom was good, ancient medicine because it contains unusual concentrations of cholesterol, ergosterol, bufagin, bufotoxin and bufotenine...
Vitamin D, the vitamin which controls the growth of bones, prevents rickets, is formed by sunlight acting on ergosterol, a vegetable substance. Chemical twin of ergosterol is cholesterol which is involved with the female sex hormone theelin. Sex hormones are intimately connected with growth, and so the "sterols" may be a foundation for all kinds of growth...
...uses of adversity, which like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head (As You Like It). From glands located behind the eyes of 7,500 U. S., German, Jamaican, Uruguayan, South African, Chinese and Japanese toads. Dr. Chen extracted potent drugs (adrenalin, cholesterol, ergosterol, and two digitalis-like substances) which modern scientific medicine considers indispensable. Apparently toads do not use these potent drugs in their own economies. When Dr. Chen removed the glands from several toads, they seemed as well as ever, pursued their proper business of bug hunting. Prospective toad farmers should note...