Making Testosterone

Making Testosterone > this is from an old thread here in the golden age. Are you using the resources here on the forum to there maximum potiential ?

This past week I researched countless websites on more than 5 different search engines trying to find the answer to my question: ***8220;How does the pharmaceutical industry make testosterone?***8221;

Many sites revealed how the human body uses cholesterol as a precursor to hormones such as progesterone, estrogen, pregnenolone, and testosterone. However, I wanted to know how people create this powerful anabolic steroid in a lab. Finally, I came across some information regarding how testosterone is made using cholesterol as a starting material. The information seemed sketchy because I found it on a bodybuilding website forum. The forum user wrote that, given cholesterol, he could synthesize testosterone by,

1) Using a mime of the cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme.

2) Treating with Tertiary butanol and acid ((CH3)3COH and H+)

3) Treating with lithium aluminum hydride, diethyl ether and water (LiAlH4, (CH3CH2)2O, H2O)

4) Treating with acetic acid and strong acid for esterification (CH3COOH and H+)

5) Treating with acid, water and 3-methyl-1-pentene (H+, H2O, CH2C(CH3)2)

6) Oxidize with pyridine chlorochromate and dichloromethane (PCC, CH2Cl2)

7) Treating with strong acid (HCl)

Apparently, this is one method to make testosterone. [1] Since my organic chemistry knowledge is not extensive enough to test these steps on paper, I am unable to verify if this is in fact a blueprint for making testosterone. Perhaps as the semester roles on, I can apply what I learn to figuring out the validity of this process. Regardless, I found out there is more than one way to manufacture testosterone.

Other scientists manufacture testosterone by extracting the chemical, diosgenin, from the whole tubers of Mexican wild yams. This is the most common method of manufacturing sex hormones, including testosterone and it was discovered by Russell Marker in the late 1930***8217;s. [2] [3] Russell Marker was an endocrinologist who found a chemical for making effective human birth control when he stumbled upon diosgenin. This discovery proved to be valuable as it provided the pharmaceutical industry with a relatively cheap starting point for manufacturing hormones. [3] Other anabolic steroids, including methandienone and methyltestosterone, are created as intermediates to testosterone production. [2] I understand this last sentence as meaning the synthetic anabolic/androgenic steroids, Dianabol and methyltestosterone, are created through the same process that testosterone is made, except there are separate steps either before or after testosterone is synthesized allowing a different chemical structure. I am not sure what an intermediate means in this case! I had a hunch that synthetic anabolic steroids were made from the parent chemical, testosterone. However, after reading that Dianabol is made as an intermediate, I am not sure if testosterone is made first, and then modified, or if Dianabol can be synthesized before ever arriving at the structure of testosterone. Perhaps I will return to how Dianabol and methyltestosterone are made during a future post. From my basic knowledge of organic chemistry it makes sense that Dianabol and methyltest (as well as other AASs) can probably be made either way.

During this past week***8217;s research I uncovered some basic, valuable facts about steroids. Steroids, in general, are organic compounds consisting of a certain arrangement of cycloalkane rings joined together. The cores of steroids have 17 carbon atoms formed into 4 fused rings of 3 cyclohexane rings and one cyclopentane ring. The core of a steroid, and the simplest possible structure of all steroids, is called gonane. [4]

Throughout the rest of my blogs, hopefully I can continue to uncover the processes of manufacturing some common anabolic steroids and use what I have learned so far about the structure of testosterone to explain this to the reader. For the time being, I need to study some more chemistry and get my basics down pat in order to proceed toward my goal for this blog. I want to uncover some more specific reaction steps like the reaction steps I found on the bodybuilding forum. While I attempt to do this I will begin writing about the benefits and side effects of performance enhancing drugs including steroids. Anyway, there is too much to learn so I better get studying!









1-http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=106585461

2-http://www.uv.es/EBRIT/macro/macro_5007_23_13.html#0018

3- DESIGNER STEROIDS: SPEEDING EVOLUTION (AND FILLING STADIUM SEATS)

4-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steroid
 
Good read, inrestesting to note that cholesterol and Mexican wild yams could be used to create testosterone.
 
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