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Percy Lavon Julian achieved the first total synthesis of physostigmine, then devised industrial routes from soybean sterols to affordable starting materials for steroid medicines.

Percy Julian sees medicine in the residue

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The idea in context

In 1935 Julian and Josef Pikl completed the total synthesis of physostigmine, making a scarce Calabar-bean compound more available for glaucoma treatment. At Glidden, Julian later recognised that water seeping into a vast soybean-oil tank had concentrated valuable sterols in a white deposit. He turned that accident into a production process whose intermediates fed the manufacture of progesterone and corticosteroid medicines. Laboratories had repeatedly closed doors to him because he was Black; he answered by opening routes through molecules at industrial scale.

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Aynı kart, başka bir dilde.

Percy Lavon Julian, fizostigminin ilk toplam sentezini gerçekleştirdi; ardından soya sterollerinden steroid ilaçlar için uygun maliyetli başlangıç maddeleri üreten endüstriyel yollar geliştirdi.
Percy Julian tortuda ilacı görüyor

Julian ve Josef Pikl 1935'te fizostigminin toplam sentezini tamamlayarak Kalabar fasulyesindeki kıt bir bileşiği glokom tedavisi için daha erişilebilir kıldı. Julian daha sonra Glidden'da, dev bir soya yağı tankına sızan suyun değerli sterolleri beyaz bir tortuda yoğunlaştırdığını fark etti. Bu kazayı, ara ürünleri progesteron ve kortikosteroid ilaçların üretimini besleyen bir sürece çevirdi. Laboratuvarlar Siyah olduğu için kapılarını defalarca kapatmıştı; o ise moleküllerin içinden endüstriyel ölçekte yollar açarak karşılık verdi.

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Background reading: Percy Lavon JulianAttribution and context are revised when stronger evidence appears. Corrections are welcome through the editorial page.
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