The chemical synthesis of testosterone from cholesterol was achieved in August that year by Butenandt and Hanisch.[180] Only a week later, the Ciba group in Zurich, Leopold Ruzicka (1887***8211;1976) and A. Wettstein, published their synthesis of testosterone.[181] These independent partial syntheses of testosterone from a cholesterol base earned both Butenandt and Ruzicka the joint 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[179][182] Testosterone was identified as 17***946;-hydroxyandrost-4-en-3-one (C19H28O2), a solid polycyclic alcohol with a hydroxyl group at the 17th carbon atom. This also made it obvious that additional modifications on the synthesized testosterone could be made, i.e., esterification and alkylation.
The partial synthesis in the 1930s of abundant, potent testosterone esters permitted the characterization of the hormone's effects, so that Kochakian and Murlin (1936) were able to show that testosterone raised nitrogen retention (a mechanism central to anabolism) in the dog, after which Allan Kenyon's group[183] was able to demonstrate both anabolic and androgenic effects of testosterone propionate in eunuchoidal men, boys, and women. The period of the early 1930s to the 1950s has been called "The Golden Age of Steroid Chemistry",[184] and work during this period progressed quickly. Research in this golden age proved that this newly synthesized compound***8212;testosterone***8212;or rather family of compounds (for many derivatives were developed from 1940 to 1960), was a potent multiplier of muscle, strength, and well-being.[185]
