“Too Little Spending On Chemical Equipment”

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29273, 3 August 1960, Page 15

“Too Little Spending On Chemical Equipment”

New Zealand is one place where too little; money is being spent on chemical equipment for universities, in the opinion of Professor C. Djerassi, of the chemical department of Stanford University, California. Professor Djerassi, who is In New Zealand under sponsorship of the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry, the universities and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, arrived in Christchurch yesterday. After speaking highly of New * Zealand university graduates > who had studied in the United • States, Professor Djerassi said ■ they compared favourably with graduates from the best univer- . sities in the United States and ■ Britain. “It is a great pity that having i produced such fine students you don’t make conditions attractive ) enough in New Zealand to en- ' sure their return," he said. A world authority on natural i products and their analysis by ■ new methods, Professor Djerassi : said that a fair amount of rei search work on the chemistry of natural products was already be- ; ing done in New Zealand. I The main work in the Domin- : ion involved plants which were in the main, completely indigeni ous to the country, he said. Some : of the physical methods at analysis were by means of ultra-violet and infra-red spectroscopic measurements. A new method was by nuclear-magnetic resonance ; and now there was the method that he had largely pioneered—optical rotatory dispension. Another part of Professor Djer-

assi’s I research is concerned with humain sex hormones. He has been 1 using a plant product grown! in Mexico as a raw material. Work of a similar nature was bleing carried out at Auckland ipniversity by Professor L. H. Brings, who had been studying some chemically-related substances! produced from the solanum qpecies, that could be used for sex hormone manufacture. Alrealdy the Russians were producing la similar substance on a semi-coMunercial basis, he said. In colnnexion with this work, Professotr Djerassi has also done research! on oral contraceptives, the use lot which, in his opinion, could be> the only practical solution for (underdeveloped countries with ovar-population problems. At present this research was still in tpe clinical stage in the United Sftates. “In the experiments carried out the chemist has been trying to modify a female sex horns one, progesterone, one of whose I functions is to inhibit ovulation (during pregnancy. “What ihe chemical modification attempts to do is to make a compound effective orally. Such a compound, in the form of an ordinary pull, should be on the American (market, by prescription, late tnis year or early next year,” said [Professer Djerassi. Professor (Djerassi is a vice-pre-sident of a | pharmaceutical company in Mexico. After his 12-day visit to the Dominion he will leave for Australia to attend a 10-day international symposium of the chemistry of natural products to be] held at Melbourne, Canberra ana Sydney.