Career Milestones
Stigmasterol (1939)
One
of Julian's greatest scientific accomplishments resulted from an accident that
could have cost him his job at Glidden. Water leaked into a tank filled with
$200,000 worth of pure soybean oil, causing the liquid to spoil and a white
sludge to form. Within the sludge, however, lay crystals Julian recognized as
stigmasterol, a plant steroid that could be converted into the pregnancy
hormone progesterone. Doctors prescribed progesterone to women in an attempt to
curb miscarriages, but until Julian's discovery, the drug was simply too costly
for many patients to afford. Although he was not the first to convert
stigmasterol into progesterone, Julian was the first to produce the hormone
affordably and in bulk. Through this achievement and later hormonal research,
Julian helped launch the steroid industry, whose products would eventually
include cortisone and the birth-control pill.