Total synthesis of cholesterol and cortisone
Síntesis total del colesterol y la cortisona (era Woodward)
- Date
- 1951 · confidence high
- Place
- Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
- Credited to
- Robert B. Woodward (with Sondheimer, Taub, Heusler, McLamore); Robinson (Oxford) in parallel
- People
- 👤 Robert Burns Woodward1917–1979
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Woodward completes the total synthesis of complex steroids with step-by-step stereochemical control, showing that any natural molecule can be built rationally. Strychnine (1954), reserpine (1956), chlorophyll (1960) and vitamin B12 (1972) would follow.
Robinson and Woodward competed in the synthesis of cholesterol; Woodward, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1965.
What it led to
- Modern organic synthesis
- Pharmaceutical industry for complex drugs
- Woodward-Hoffmann rules
Built on
Made possible
- Beta blocker (propranolol) and rational drug design1962-1964
- synthetic steroids and contraceptives
- designer drugs