STUDIES ON MICROBIOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATION OF STEROID COMPOUNDS

Abstract

Transformation of REICHSTEIN'S compound S or progesterone by various microorganisms such as fungi, bacteria and streptomycetes of about 700 strains has been studied (Table 1). The actions of several strains upon various corticoid steroids were investigated and the transformed steroids were isolated and their structures determined. From these results it was revealed that almost all of the microorganisms tested have a certain kind of substrate specificity in their actions as shown in Table 2.