Career Milestones
Stigmasterol (1939)
One of Julian's greatest scientific accomplishments resulted from an
accident that could have cost him his job at Glidden. Water leaked
into a tank filled with $200,000 worth of pure soybean oil, causing
the liquid to spoil and a white sludge to form. Within the sludge,
however, lay crystals Julian recognized as stigmasterol, a plant
steroid that could be converted into the pregnancy hormone
progesterone. Doctors prescribed progesterone to women in an attempt
to curb miscarriages, but until Julian's discovery, the drug was
simply too costly for many patients to afford. Although he was not
the first to convert stigmasterol into progesterone, Julian was the
first to produce the hormone affordably and in bulk. Through this
achievement and later hormonal research, Julian helped launch the
steroid industry, whose products would eventually include cortisone
and the birth-control pill.