BUTENANDT ADOLF: (1903-1995) German Biochemist, Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry, 1939. An ...

BUTENANDT ADOLF: (1903-1995) German Biochemist, Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry, 1939. An original pen and ink diagram signed, Adolf Butenandt, one page, small oblong 8vo, n.p., n.d. In black ink Butenandt has drawn a graphic representation of the chemical structure of the steroid Estrone (E1), a minor female sex hormone. Annotated Oestron 1929 in his hand to the right and signed beneath. VG

Estrone was independently discovered by Butenandt and the American scientists Edward Doisy and Edgar Allen in 1929 and was the first steroid hormone to be discovered. Butenandt was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1939 in recognition of his isolation of estrone and his work on sex hormones in general.