THE PAPER CHROMATOGRAPHTC SEPARATION AND QUALITATIVE IDENTIFICATION OF MIXTURES OF Cl903 STEROIDS*t

The biochemical significance of steroid metabolites containing 19 carbons and 3 oxygens has been recently recognized. Compounds of this type are found in the urine of both normal persons and patients with metabolic disorders (1, 2). Their excretion seems to be related to adrenocortical function, since increased amounts of these compounds are observed after the administration of cortisone or adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) (3-5). Several of these compounds have been shown to be produced by the action of adrenal gland preparations on a variety of steroid precursors (6-9). Kochakian and Stidworthy (10) reported the paper chromatographic mobility of some C&O3 steroids expressed as the ratio of the movement of the steroid to the movement of testosterone CRT value). In a recent publication by Savard (11) the chromatographic behavior of a number of 17-ketosteroids of the C1903 series was reported. However, in these communications no systematic technique for the separation of mixtures of a large number of these biochemically significant compounds was proposed. In the course of previous investigations carried out in this laboratory (9), preliminary observations on the chromatographic behavior of some steroids of this type were presented. Subsequently, methods were devised for the paper chromatographic separation of mixtures of &03 steroids as well as techniques for their qualitative characterization.