Stigmasterol: a Comprehensive Review

Extensive research has been carried out from last decades to discover potential constituents from plant sources. Stigmasterol is an important constituent and has been isolated from plants. It is involved in the synthesis of many hormones like progesterone, androgens, estrogens and corticoids. In addition to stigmasterol many of its derivatives like, spinasterol, fucosterol, cyasterone, stigmasterol glucoside, fucosterol epoxide, stigma-4en-3one, 29fluorostigmasterol etc. have been isolated and their pharmacological aspects has been assessed. This comprehensive account provides information about stigmasterol and its derivatives. The diversity in their pharmacological reports reveals that this constituent is worth further investigation. INTRODUCTION: Stigmasterol, also known as Stigmasterin or Wulzen anti-stiffness factor (Figure 1), an unsaturated plant sterol present in various medicinal plants. Stigmasterol is utilized in a number of chemical processes which are designed to yield numerous synthetic and semi-synthetic compounds for pharmaceutical industry. It acts as a precursor in the synthesis of progesterone and acts as an intermediate in the biosynthesis of androgens, estrogens, corticoids 1 and in the synthesis of vitamin D3 .