2
STEROLS
Research into marine sterols falls neatly into three chronological periods.
The first period encompasses the recognition in the early part of this century
that cholesterol is not the sole and ubiquitous animal sterol and that marine
invertebrates elaborate sterols that differ from cholesterol. The second period
followed the structural elucidation of cholesterol in 1932, and is characterized
by intensive investigation into the sterols of many species of marine plants
and animals. This research was dominated by the pioneering efforts of the late
Werner Bergmann at Yale and by several investigators in Japan, notably
Tsuda's research group in Tokyo. Bergmann also faithfully and frequently
reviewed marine sterol research, particularly in 1949 and (published posthumously) in 1962. The third and current period dates from the widespread
availability of mass spectrometers and vapor-phase chromatographs with
high resolving power. It is only now that the remarkable diversity of marine
sterols, which had been foreseen by Dorée (1909) and by Bergmann (1934),
is becoming an experimental reality. It is also becoming increasingly evident
that few individual sterols are fully characteristic of a given plant or animal
taxon. With the refinement of our analytical capabilities has come the realization that any given sterol tends to be distributed among a number of taxa,
but that the sterol profile of many taxa tends to be characteristic of the taxon.
Credit for the isolation of the first marine sterol, spongosterol, from the
Mediterranean sponge Suberites domuncula goes to Henze (1904, 1908),
but it was Dorée (1909) who first surveyed a number of animal phyla for
occurrence of sterols. The clear recognition that sterol diversity is greatest
58
STEROLS
Research into marine sterols falls neatly into three chronological periods.
The first period encompasses the recognition in the early part of this century
that cholesterol is not the sole and ubiquitous animal sterol and that marine
invertebrates elaborate sterols that differ from cholesterol. The second period
followed the structural elucidation of cholesterol in 1932, and is characterized
by intensive investigation into the sterols of many species of marine plants
and animals. This research was dominated by the pioneering efforts of the late
Werner Bergmann at Yale and by several investigators in Japan, notably
Tsuda's research group in Tokyo. Bergmann also faithfully and frequently
reviewed marine sterol research, particularly in 1949 and (published posthumously) in 1962. The third and current period dates from the widespread
availability of mass spectrometers and vapor-phase chromatographs with
high resolving power. It is only now that the remarkable diversity of marine
sterols, which had been foreseen by Dorée (1909) and by Bergmann (1934),
is becoming an experimental reality. It is also becoming increasingly evident
that few individual sterols are fully characteristic of a given plant or animal
taxon. With the refinement of our analytical capabilities has come the realization that any given sterol tends to be distributed among a number of taxa,
but that the sterol profile of many taxa tends to be characteristic of the taxon.
Credit for the isolation of the first marine sterol, spongosterol, from the
Mediterranean sponge Suberites domuncula goes to Henze (1904, 1908),
but it was Dorée (1909) who first surveyed a number of animal phyla for
occurrence of sterols. The clear recognition that sterol diversity is greatest
58