Synthetic Theelin

A healthy woman can wear sheer stockings and low-necked dresses in winter without catching cold because warm blood is sent coursing through her skin by a sex hormone called theelin. Principal function of theelin (Greek theelis, female) is to make a woman womanly. It is elaborated by the ovaries.* The theelin molecule contains 18 atoms of carbon, 22 of hydrogen, two of oxygen.

Thirteen years ago Dr. Edward Adelbert Doisy of St. Louis obtained thousands of gallons of urine from pregnant women in lying-in hospitals. To extract the potent substance he was looking for, he devised his own condensers, experimented with distilling apparatus, tried one solvent after another. In August 1929 he reported isolation of the hormone in pure crystals. It was present in the parent fluid to an extent of one part in 4,000,000. Since then theelin has been used to treat hemophilia, periodic migraine, menstrual disorders, infantilism, frigidity, delayed puberty, physical and psychic malaises associated with the menopause.

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.

Melting point measurements and other tests established the identity of the synthetic product with the natural hormone which heretofore has been extracted chiefly from the urine of pregnant mares.

*Other female sex hormones include estrin from the ovaries; prolactin from the pituitary; progostin from the corpus luteum.

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