Scientists pinpoint presence of female sex hormone in plant
February 5th, 2010 - 1:40 pm ICT by IANSWashington, Feb 5 (IANS) Scientists have unearthed female sex hormone progesterone in a plant, upsetting conventional wisdom that only animals secreted it.
A steroid hormone produced by the ovaries, progesterone prepares the uterus for pregnancy and maintains it. A synthetic version, progestin, is used in birth control pills and other medications.
“The significance of the unequivocal identification of progesterone cannot be overstated,” said the study by Guido F. Pauli, College of Pharmacy, Chicago and colleagues.
“While the biological role of progesterone has been extensively studied in mammals, the reason for its presence in plants is less apparent.”
They speculate that the hormone, like other steroid hormones, might be an ancient bioregulator that evolved billions of years ago, before the appearance of modern plants and animals.
The new discovery may change scientific understanding of the evolution and function of progesterone in living things.
Scientists previously identified progesterone-like substances in plants and speculated that the hormone itself could exist in plants, said a release of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
But researchers had not found the actual hormone in plants until now. Pauli and colleagues used two powerful techniques, nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectroscopy, to detect progesterone in leaves of the Common Walnut, or English Walnut, tree.
They also identified five new progesterone-related steroids in a plant belonging to the buttercup family.
The discovery was published in ACS Journal of Natural Products.
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