Progesterona descoberto pela primeira vez em uma planta

First Discovery of the Female Sex Hormone Progesterone in a Plant

ScienceDaily (Feb. 7, 2010) — In a finding that overturns conventional wisdom, scientists are reporting the first discovery of the female sex hormone progesterone in a plant. Until now, scientists thought that only animals could make progesterone. A steroid hormone secreted by the ovaries, progesterone prepares the uterus for pregnancy and maintains pregnancy. A synthetic version, progestin, is used in birth control pills and other medications.

Leaves of the walnut tree contain progesterone, the female sex hormone, discovered for the first time in a plant. (Credit: iStockphoto)

The discovery is reported in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Natural Products.

"The significance of the unequivocal identification of progesterone cannot be overstated," the article by Guido F. Pauli and colleagues, states. "While the biological role of progesterone has been extensively studied in mammals, the reason for its presence in plants is less apparent."

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Occurrence of Progesterone and Related Animal Steroids in Two Higher Plants#,

Guido F. Pauli*†‡§, J. Brent Friesen†‡, Tanja Gdecke†, Norman R. Farnsworth† and Bernhard Glodny§
Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy and Program for Collaborative Research in the Pharmaceutical Sciences and Institute for Tuberculosis Research, College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois at Chicago, 833 S. Wood Street, Chicago, Illinois 60612, Department of Natural Science, Rosary College of Arts and Sciences, Dominican University, River Forest, Illinois 60305, and Department of Radiology, Innsbruck Medical University, Anichstrasse 35, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria

J. Nat. Prod., Article ASAP
DOI: 10.1021/np9007415
Publication Date (Web): January 28, 2010
Copyright © 2010 The American Chemical Society and American Society of Pharmacognosy
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Dedicated to the late Dr. John W. Daly of NIDDK, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, for this pioneering work on bioactive natural products.,

Dedicated also to Drs. Peter Junior (formerly Heinrich Heine- University, Dsseldorf) and Nikolaus H. Fischer (formerly Louisiana State University and The University of Mississippi)., * To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: (312) 355-1949. Fax: (312)-355-2693. E-mail: gfp@uic.edu., †

Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy and Program for Collaborative Research, University of Illinois at Chicago., ‡

Institute for Tuberculosis Research, University of Illinois at Chicago.,

Dominican University.,

Innsbruck Medical University., §

Previous address: Institute for Pharmaceutical Biology and Phytochemistry, Westflische Wilhelms-University Mnster, Hittorfstrasse 56, 48149 Mnster, Germany.

Previously, the presence of a wide variety of chemically diverse steroids has been identified in both flora and fauna. Despite the relatively small differences in chemical structures and large differences in physiological function of steroids, new discoveries indicate that plants and animals are more closely related than previously thought. In this regard, the present study gathers supporting evidence for shared phylogenetic roots of structurally similar steroids produced by these two eukaryotic taxa. Definitive proof for the presence of progesterone (3) in a vascular plant, Juglans regia, is provided. Additional evidence is gleaned from the characterization of five new plant steroids from Adonis aleppica: three 3-O-sulfated pregnenolones (6a/b, 7), a sulfated H-5β cardenolide, strophanthidin-3-O-sulfate (8), and spirophanthigenin (10), a novel C-18 oxygenated spirocyclic derivative of strophanthidin. The ab initio isolation and structure elucidation (NMR, MS) of these genuine minor plant steroids offers information on preparative metabolomic profiling at the ppm level and provides striking evidence for the conserved structural space of pregnanes and its congeners across the phylogenetic tree.

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