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Epiandrosterone,is a steroid hormone with weak androgenic activity. It is a natural metabolite of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) via the 5α-reductase enzyme. It was first isolated in 1931, by Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt and Kurt Tscherning. They distilled over 17,000 litres of male urine, from which they got 50 milligrams of crystalline androsterone (most likely mixed isomers), which was sufficient to find that the chemical formula was very similar to estrone.
Dehydroepiandrosterone/dehydroepiandrostenedione (DHEA, more correctly didehydroepiandrosterone), also known as androstenolone or prasterone (INN), as well as 3β-hydroxyandrost-5-en-17-one or 5-androsten-3β-ol-17-one, is an important endogenous steroid hormone.It is the most abundant circulating steroid hormone in humans,in whom it is produced in the adrenal glands,the gonads, and the brain,where it functions predominantly as a metabolic intermediate in the biosynthesis of the androgen and estrogen sex steroids.However, DHEA also has a variety of potential biological effects in its own right, binding to an array of nuclear and cell surface receptors,and acting as a neurosteroid.
