The wood-derived compound, beta-sitosterol (purity > 90%), was shown to be estrogenic in fish. It induced the expression of the vitellogenin gene in the liver of juvenile and methyltestosterone-treated rainbow trout. Structural similarities to beta-sitosterol notwithstanding, cholesterol,
A new sterol, stigmast-5-ene-3beta,17alpha-diol (1), together with six known compounds, stigmast-5-ene-3beta-yl formate (2), stigmast-5-ene-3beta,7alpha-diol (3), stigmast-5-ene-7alpha-methoxy-3beta-ol (4), stigmast-5-ene-3-one (5), 3beta-sitostanol (6), and 3beta-sitosterol (7), was isolated from