Inventor database
Verified
Percy Lavon Julian
Synthetic chemist who made steroid medicines affordable
At a glance
- Inventor
- Percy Lavon Julian
- Life
- 1899–1975
- Birthplace
- Montgomery, Alabama
- Country
- United States
- Region
- United States
- Era
- 1900–1950
- Fields
- Medicine & Health, Science & Engineering
- Evidence
- Verified
- Records
- 0 in this archive
What they did
Julian synthesised physostigmine for glaucoma and developed industrial routes to steroid intermediates from soybean and later Mexican yam sterols, holding more than 100 patents.
Historical context
Cortisone and sex hormones could only be extracted from animal glands at extraordinary cost — cortisone was quoted at hundreds of dollars per gram.
Obstacles
Denied a faculty appointment because of his race; his family's Oak Park home was firebombed in 1950 and again in 1951.
The legacy
Affordable corticosteroids and hormone therapies rest on the synthetic routes he industrialised.
The evidence
Percy L. Julian patent record
Percy Julian, Chemical Achievers