His pioneering company served as a training ground for dozens of promising young African American chemists, thereby breaking the color barrier in American industrial science.
During this time, Dr. In , Dr. This sale made Julian one of the first African American millionaires, and further propelled him to become a civic and civil rights leader, as a fundraiser and prominent public speaker for racial justice. We are proud to celebrate the accomplishments of Dr. Julian, and we are honored to count his history as part of our own.
Discover more about what we do, the people behind GSK and how we are working to help change the face of healthcare. Meanwhile researchers in many countries were seeking innovative and cost-effective ways to synthesize steroids, including cortisone and the sex hormones.
German chemists discovered that the steroid stigmasterol, which Julian had obtained as a by-product of the physostigmine synthesis but was also obtainable from soybeans, could be used in the synthesis of certain sex hormones, including progesterone, a female sex hormone that was important in helping pregnant women avoid miscarriages.
In pursuit of this lead, in Julian wrote to the Glidden Company in Chicago, requesting samples of their soybean oil. Through a series of events he wound up being hired by Glidden instead, as their director of research in the Soya Division, where he set about figuring out ways to make new products from soybeans. Three years after arriving at Glidden, Julian learned from plant workers that water had leaked into a tank of purified soybean oil and formed a solid white mass.
Immediately identifying the substance as stigmasterol, he realized he had stumbled upon a method for producing large amounts of the steroid from soybeans. Now with large quantities of stigmasterol at hand, he was able to develop an innovative industrial process for converting it to progesterone in bulk, producing five to six pounds of progesterone per day worth thousands of dollars in those days.
Soon other sex hormones were in production. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Percy L. George Washington Carver was an African American scientist and educator. Carver is famous for many inventions including a number of uses for the peanut. Ernest Everett Just was an African American biologist and educator best known for his pioneering work in the physiology of development, especially in fertilization.
When he died in , he had 26 patents in his name. Marie M. Daly is best known for being the first African American woman to receive a Ph. Charles Drew was an African American surgeon who pioneered methods of storing blood plasma for transfusion and organized the first large-scale blood bank in the U. Patricia Bath was the first African American to complete a residency in ophthalmology and the first African American female doctor to receive a medical patent.
She invented the Laserphaco Probe for cataract treatment in African American chemist Percy Julian was a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs such as cortisone, steroids and birth control pills.
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