Nippon Kayaku Kabushiki Kaisha

Tama Biochemical Co., Ltd.

Tokuo Furuse

Tsuyoshi Watanabe

Hiroki Kuriyama

Suguru Takatsuto

Sei-ichi Hayashi

Tadashi Hohjoh

A process for producing a steroid compound which is useful as an intermediate for synthesizing plant growth regulators, brassinosteroids, and is represented by the general formula (4): ##STR1## in which R.sub.2 is a methyl or ethyl, and * indicates the binding site of R.sub.1 to a steroid nucleus, or general formula (5): ##STR2## wherein R.sub.1 is as defined above. According to the process disclosed herein, an intermediate for a brassinolide, epibrassinolide, homobrassinolide or derivatives thereof can be produced highly advantageously in the industries.

Growing community of inventors

Iseharaa, Japan

Tokuo Furuse