On October 22 1940 Julian, Mayer and Krause received a patent for cortisone, used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, bursitis, adrenal insufficiency, allergies, diseases of connective tissue and gout.
Percy Lavon Julian (April 11, 1899 – April 19, 1975) was an American research chemist and a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants. He was the first to synthesize the natural product physostigmine, and a pioneer in the industrial large-scale chemical synthesis of the human hormones progesterone and testosterone from plant sterols such as stigmasterol and sitosterol. His work laid the foundation for the steroid drug industry’s production of cortisone, other corticosteroids, and birth control pills.
Patent Information
Patent number: US2218971 A
Patent Title: Recovery of sterols
Publication type: Grant
Publication date: Oct 22, 1940
Filing date: Apr 6, 1939
Priority date: Apr 6, 1939
Inventors: Julian Percy L, Krause Norman C, Meyer Edwin W
Assignee: Glidden Co