Recent Developments in our Knowledge of Steroids¹

Annually, the American Chemical Abstracts has some 3000 references to plant steroids or related compounds. This is a review of 34 selected papers mainly from the literature of 1984-1985. Plant steroids as raw material for the pharmaceutical industry; tissue culture for steroids; horticultural trials of species for sapogenins; the in Vitro use of enzymes to increase the yield of sapogenins from plant material. New furostanol precursors of diosgenin; the cytotoxic activity of these and related compounds; their possible role in plant mineral metabolism. Microorganisms in the biotransformation of steroids; the exploitation of waste material as a source of sterols; the use of fungal spores on diatomaceous particles; the use of fungal protoplasts; hydrophobic resin as a product reservoir in such transformations. Brassinosteroids, their distribution as plant growth hormones; their microquantitative bioassay; physiological studies towards their use for enhancement of crop production; patented analogues obtained by partial synthesis. Ecdysones, their wide distribution in plants; their possible functions: effect on photosynthetic and respiratory rates; root protection against soil nematodes; dietary value in animal nutrition; their use in insect control. 29-Fluorophytosterols as pro-insecticides; fungal pregnanes as insecticides. Cardiac glycosides; ecological significance in plant-insect-bird relationships; new cardenolides, naturally occurring and those obtained by partial synthesis; the use of mesophyll cells in tissue culture; crossbreeding of Digitalis species. Steroidal alkaloids: reference to their annual review and to a steroidal antibiotic; the types of alkaloids now defineable in the Buxaceae and their chemotaxonomic significance for the new ones from the single genus family, Didymelaceae.

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