STIGMASTEROL AND FIRE RETARDANT

Percy Lavon Julian - Life and Legacy

Dwayne Wyre and John R. Williams 

Department of Chemistry, Temple University, 

Philadelphia, PA 19122

...In 1939 a worker reported to Julian that one of the tanks used for soybeans separation had cracked and water was leaking into the purified soybean oil. Julian investigated the tank and found that a mass of some white substance had settled on the bottom of the tank. He instantly recalled his geneserin research and concluded that it was stigmasterol. Additionally a layer of foam not unlike a head of beer had formed on top of the tank. Julian immediately centrifuged the tank and extracted the stigmasterol from the bottom and skimmed off the substance floating on the surface for analysis. Percy reproduced the accident and developed a process whereby he could produce 100 pounds of Soya sterols daily. He brilliantly developed a process using ozonolysis to convert these sterols initially into progesterone and later into other sex hormones. Julian’s first major medical breakthrough resulted in the production oral contraceptives and steroids for widespread medicinal use. Modern hormonal therapy is made possible by his chemistry.

Julian dried and experimented with the head, which subsequent analysis proved to be mainly protein. When mixed with water it instantly became foam. Julian ingeniously realized the fire-fighting application of this material and Aero-Foam was born. As a flame retardant it found an immediate application in WWII....

Source:  http://www.temple.edu/chemistry/main/faculty/Williams/Percy%20Lavon%20Julian%201.htm