Percy Lavon Julian
Pioneering Visionary Genius Scientist
THE MOST INFLUENTIAL CHEMIST IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
Dr. Julian was an African American, husband activist, research chemist, and pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants. He was the first to synthesize the natural product physostigmine; and was a pioneer in the industrial large-scale chemical synthesis of human hormones, steroids, progesterone, and testosterone, from plant sterols such as stigmasterol and sitosterol. His work would lay the foundation for the steroid drug industry’s production of cortisone, other corticosteroids, and birth control pills.
He was born Tuesday, April 11, 1899, in Montgomery, Alabama, to James Sumner Julian and Elizabeth Lena Julian.
He attended school through the eighth grade and graduated. During the racism at the time in US history, there were elevated-level academic schools for blacks. But through his resilience and passion, he went to apply to the university in Greencastle, Indiana named Depauw. There he took extra circular academics to improve his learning skills. With all oppositions surrounding him in the university he graduated top of his class with Phi Beta Kappa Honors.
After graduating he became a chemistry instructor at Fisk University, He left in 1923 when he received a scholarship to attend Harvard University to finish his master’s degree. He complete and received his degree and traveled for several years, teaching at black colleges, before obtaining his Ph.D. at the University of Vienna in Austria in 1931.
With his doctorate in hand, he returned to DePauw to continue his research. In 1935l, he first synthesized from this plant African calabar bean a chemical called physostigmine, or eserine, which could treat the sometimes blinding disease of glaucoma by reducing pressure inside the eyeball and had what he discovered patent. This was a major scientific medical breakthrough for the world of science. He received major press and accommodations with international scientific acclaim in spite of his discovery and success with medical treatment, the university refused to officially give him the title as professor because he was black.
In 1939, a water leak in a tank of purified soybean oil created a strange byproduct and gave Julian a surprising insight: the soy sterol that had been created could be used to manufacture male and female hormones, progesterone, and testosterone. Progesterone would prove useful in treating certain cancers and problem pregnancies which he patents.
During World War II, Julian patented and developed a foam from soy protein that could put out oil and gas fires; it was quickly adopted by the military.
In 1948, the Mayo Clinic announced the discovery of a compound that relieved rheumatoid arthritis. It was cortisone, very difficult to come by. Julian got right to work, and by October 1949, his team had created a synthetic cortisone substitute, radically less expensive but just as effective. Natural cortisone had to be extracted from the adrenal glands of oxen and cost hundreds of dollars per drop; Julian’s synthetic cortisone was only pennies per ounce.
By making important medical products plentiful and less expensive, Julian accelerated the research and growth of knowledge about them. His techniques and products led directly to the development of chemical birth control and medicines to suppress the immune system, crucial in performing organ transplants.
Dr.Julian held more than 100 chemical patents, wrote scores of papers on his work, and received dozens of awards and honorary degrees. He founded The Julian Laboratories, Inc., with labs in the U.S. and Mexico (both purchased by Smith Kline French in 1961) and another chemical plant in Guatemala He sold the company in 1961 to Upjohn company, becoming one of the first black millionaires. In 1951, Julian and his family moved to Oak Park, Illinois, becoming the first black family to live there. He opened up Julian Research Institute, a nonprofit organization that he ran for the rest of his life. In 1973 Dr. Julian was elected to the National Academy of the Sciences becoming the first black chemist to receive that honor. On April 19, 1975, Dr. Julian passed away from natural causes of liver cancer.
In 1990 Dr. Julian receive the prestigious induction to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and in 1999 his synthesis of physostigmine was recognized by the American Chemical Society as “one of the top 25 achievements in the history of American chemistry.”