Progesterone soft capsules?

Progesterone belongs to pregnene (4) derivative, and its traditional synthesis method is to take diosgenin extracted from Dioscorea zingiberensis as raw material and obtain it through multi-step reaction (reference: Journal of Pharmacy 2007 (16) 233-235; CN 1029644 15A).

Before the end of 1990s, due to the low labor cost and inadequate environmental supervision in China, the cost of extracting saponin from Dioscorea zingiberensis was low, and the price of saponin was below 200,000 yuan/ton. However, with the increase of domestic labor costs and environmental protection costs, the current price of saponin is above 800,000 yuan/ton. In addition, it usually takes a long time to synthesize various steroid compounds with saponins, and the molecular weight is greatly reduced, so the yield is low and the cost is high. Using 4AD(4- androstenedione) as raw material to synthesize progesterone, the general steps are shorter and the molecular weight is increased, so the yield is higher and the cost is lower.

From the point of view of atomic economics and environmental protection, it is more scientific, and the 4AD route has great cost and environmental protection advantages. After searching, it was found that the invention patent application with the publication number of CN 103848879A disclosed a preparation method of progesterone, specifically, using 4- androstenedione as raw material, firstly synthesizing the enol ether of 4- androstenedione, and then carrying out Wittig reaction to obtain progesterone. This patent uses quite expensive (1- methoxyethyl) triphenylphosphine boron tetrafluoride phosphide.