Percy Julian was an American chemist known for being the frontiersperson in the chemical synthesis of drugs and human hormones from plant sterols.Julian was born in Montgomery, Alabama, and attended DePauw University. He was the first person to synthesize the natural product physostigmine and in the industrial chemical synthesis of estrogen and testosterone (human hormones) from plant sterols.Percy Julian’s work laid the groundwork for the steroid drug industry’s cortisone and birth control pill production. He later created his own company to research and synthesize steroids by extracting them from the Mexican yam. Julian oversaw the construction of the first plant to deliver the isolated soybean protein from an oil-free soybean meal. The isolated soybean became the substitute for expensive milk used in industrial products, including paper coating and sizing and glue for manufacturing Douglas fir plywood. At Glidden, Julian’s research transformed in the ’40s when he started working on synthesizing human hormones, such as estrogen and testosterone, from plant sterols, which were then separated from soybean oil by a foaming method that he developed and patented.Famous Percy Julian QuotePercy Julian was among the first African Americans to earn a doctorate in chemistry and the first chemist to research and synthesize human hormones from plants. He was an accomplished chemist who had several honorary awards. Julian acquired over 130 chemical patents throughout his career.“As a matter of fact, one hardly expects a scientist to speak without that, and therefore scientists are usually and traditionally poor speakers, I warn you."-www.pbs.org.“I’m married to a dear little girl who holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania.““Well, I could tell that they might like it because we made a pretty good dog food. Red Hot was our specialty at that company.““I believe making me “Chicagoan of the Year” or some such something.”–www.pbs.org.“So I wanted to marry this girl, but I was too poor to do so, and so I had to do something.““I don’t want to frighten those of you who are not familiar with organic chemistry. I should have said in the beginning that one hardly expects an organic chemist to be able to speak without his gobbledygook in his language. “-www.pbs.org.“And so I started in on another very fascinating plant, the soybean.“Percy Julian Quotes On RaceJulian had encountered many setbacks and disappointments in his career because of his race. Check out some of his sayings about his experiences and struggles.“The kind of hope I grew up with is missing in today’s ghetto youth because of a breakdown in family life. It has its roots in slavery when often the father of the family was uprooted and sold down the river.““The son would grow up and get married, and, when he was unable to get a job because there were not jobs for a black man, he would get embarrassed that he could not support his family and walk out thinking, ‘my mother did it alone, and my wife is no better’.““Well, that went on generation after generation, and it’s no better today. There still are no jobs, and welfare encourages the man to leave the family.““One of the greatest problems facing the country is how to reconcile the young ghetto dweller with the rest of America. We have a large problem of ignorance, lack of opportunity, and divided families. I worry about how we are going to solve it. ““The two things I feared as a boy most were rattlesnakes and white people.““I have had one goal in my life, that of playing some role in making life a little easier for the persons who come after me.“Scientific Percy Julian QuotesPercy Julian’s work laid the foundation for the production of birth control pills and cortisone in the industry of steroids, which significantly decreased the expense of steroid intermediaries to global pharmaceutical companies, enabling them to dramatically augment the usage of essential drugs, including the making of cortisone.“I don’t think that you can possibly embrace the kind of joy which one who has worked with plants and plant structures such as I have over a period of nearly 40 years, how wonderful the plant laboratory seems."-www.pbs.org.“Fifty percent of the weight of the soybean is protein. And what a protein! No other protein that we’ve known comes so nearly to the basic protein of animals and humans as soybean protein.““Moral and ethical principles must be conserved, the family tradition, it seems, must not be broken, and yet all of this will be possible, I believe, with care taken, as it should be taken, in the prosecution of this fine development of science."-www.pbs.org.“And it was this little accidental discovery, which kind of accidents characterize the development of science so often, led to a practical way for the isolation of the steroids and the sterols from the soybean oil.““But it is interesting to see that the plant structure takes care of all of that. Immediately it uses up this formaldehyde with a means to transform it into wonderful structures, all sorts of plant alkaloids, as we call them, some of them being our choicest medicines and drugs."-www.pbs.org.Percy Julian Quotes On EnvironmentThe Montgomery-born star was the first Black chemist to be named to the National Academy of Sciences and the second Black scientist to be inducted from all the disciplines and research. His quotes on the environment are relevant today regarding the ever-increasing climate change and global warming.“Unless we, who know better than most world citizens the horror of the mushroom cloud that hangs ominously over us, become active Humanists in word and in deed."-www.pbs.org.“I remember, as a boy of 17 years of age, this was a fascinating thing for me: how we human beings breathe out carbon dioxide into the air, the leaves of plants pick this carbon dioxide up, and the plant gives off oxygen, which we can breathe in and keep our life going.““The population explosion is not a myth; it is a very serious thing. And now we have the means, the first means, with which safely to control this situation with intelligence."-www.pbs.org.
Percy Julian was an American chemist known for being the frontiersperson in the chemical synthesis of drugs and human hormones from plant sterols.
