Luis Ernesto Miramontes Cárdenas (March 16, 1925 – September 13, 2004) was a Mexican chemist known as the co-inventor of the

progestin A progestogen, also referred to as a progestagen, gestagen, or gestogen, is a type of medication which produces effects similar to those of the natural female sex hormone progesterone in the body. A progestin is a '' synthetic'' progestogen. Pro ...

norethisterone Norethisterone, also known as norethindrone and sold under many brand names, is a progestin medication used in birth control pills, menopausal hormone therapy, and for the treatment of gynecological disorders. The medication is available in bot ...

used in one of the first three

oral contraceptive Oral contraceptives, abbreviated OCPs, also known as birth control pills, are medications taken by mouth for the purpose of birth control. Female Two types of female oral contraceptive pill, taken once per day, are widely available: * The combin ...

s. Miramontes was born in

Tepic Tepic () is the capital and largest city of the western Mexican state of Nayarit, as well as the seat of the Tepic Municipality. Located in the central part of the state, it stands at an altitude of above sea level, on the banks of the Río ...

Nayarit Nayarit (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nayarit ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Nayarit), is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 20 municipalities and its ...

. He obtained his first Degree in chemical engineering at the

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...

(UNAM). He was a founding researcher of the Institute of Chemistry of UNAM, specializing mainly in the area of

Organic Chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, J.; ...

. He was a professor of the Faculty of Chemistry of UNAM, Director and professor of the School of Chemistry at the

Universidad Iberoamericana The Ibero-American University ( es, Universidad Iberoamericana), also referred to by its acronym ''UIA'' but commonly known as ''Ibero'' or ''La Ibero'') is a private, Catholic, Mexican higher education institution, sponsored by the Mexican prov ...

, and deputy director of research at the Mexican Institute of Petroleum (IMP). Miramontes was a member of diverse scientific societies, such as the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

(Emeritus), the Mexican Institute of Chemical Engineers, the National Institute of Chemical and Chemical Engineers, the Chemical Society of Mexico, the

American Institute of Chemical Engineers The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is a professional organization for chemical engineers. AIChE was actually established in 1908 to distinguish chemical engineers as a profession independent of chemists and mechanical engineer ...

and the

New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (originally the Lyceum of Natural History) was founded in January 1817 as the Lyceum of Natural History. It is the fourth oldest scientific society in the United States. An independent, nonprofit organization wit ...

. He died in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of M ...

in 2004.

Invention and synthesis of norethisterone

The scientific contributions of Luis Miramontes are extensive, including numerous publications and nearly 40 national and international patents in different areas such as

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, J.; ...

pharmaceutical chemistry Medicinal or pharmaceutical chemistry is a scientific discipline at the intersection of chemistry and pharmacy involved with designing and developing pharmaceutical drugs. Medicinal chemistry involves the identification, synthesis and developmen ...

petrochemistry Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sou ...

and

atmospheric chemistry Atmospheric chemistry is a branch of atmospheric science in which the chemistry of the Earth's atmosphere and that of other planets is studied. It is a multidisciplinary approach of research and draws on environmental chemistry, physics, meteoro ...

and polluting agents. Among his multiple contributions to world science is the synthesis on October 15, 1951, when Miramontes was only 26 years old, of

(norethindrone), that was to become the progestin used in one of the first three oral contraceptives ( combined oral contraceptive pills). For this reason, Luis Miramontes is considered by Lilia Miramontes to be its inventor. Carl Djerassi, Luis Miramontes and

George Rosenkranz George Rosenkranz (born György Rosenkranz; 20 August 1916 – 23 June 2019) was a pioneering Mexican scientist in the field of steroid chemistry, who used native Mexican plant sources as raw materials. He was born in Hungary, studied in Switzerl ...

of the Mexican chemical company

Syntex Laboratorios Syntex SA (later Syntex Laboratories, Inc.) was a pharmaceutical company formed in Mexico City in January 1944 by Russell Marker, Emeric Somlo, and Federico Lehmann to manufacture therapeutic steroids from the Mexican yams called ''cab ...

are listed on the patent for norethisterone as its co-inventors. Djerassi "is now known sometimes as the 'Father of the Pill'".Penny Le Couteur & Jay Burreson. Napoleon's Buttons. Tarcher; Reprint edition (May 24, 2004) The historians, nevertheless, agree that the invention, or the first synthesis, is the work of Miramontes. For example, the Nobel laureate

Max Perutz Max Ferdinand Perutz (19 May 1914 – 6 February 2002) was an Austrian-born British molecular biologist, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with John Kendrew, for their studies of the structures of haemoglobin and myoglobin. He we ...

states that "On October 15th, 1951, the chemistry student Luis Miramontes, working under the direction of Djerassi and the director of the laboratory Jorge Rosenkranz synthesized the compound". Djerassi himself affirms that it was, in fact, Miramontes who conducted the last step of the first synthesis of the compound: "On 15 October 1951, Luis Miramontes, a young Mexican chemist doing his undergraduate bachelor's thesis work at Syntex completed the synthesis of the 19-nor-17α-ethynyltestosterone or, for short 'norethisterone'—which turned out to be the first oral contraceptive to be synthesized. Lecture audiences are always intrigued when I display a slide showing the carefully dated and hand-written lab protocol of the very last step in that synthesis conducted by Miramontes, in which the elements of acetylene are added to impart oral activity." The scientific article reporting the synthesis of 19-nor-17α-ethynyltestosterone (norethisterone) has Miramontes as the second author. Finally, the last step of the synthesis method was registered, on October 15, 1951, in page 114 of the Miramontes's personal laboratory notebook (signed). In a 2006 essay published in the '' FASEB Journal'', the director of the

Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology The Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research (WFBR) was a non-profit biomedical research institute based in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, United States. History The foundation was established as an independent research center under the name Worces ...

said: "Another aspect of the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

s that is a perennial topic of discussion concerns those discoveries, inventions, or advances that go unrecognized altogether. One is the

birth control pill The combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP), often referred to as the birth control pill or colloquially as "the pill", is a type of birth control that is designed to be taken orally by women. The pill contains two important hormones: progesti ...

. I have just mentioned the Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research, where pioneering work by Gregory Pincus and M. C. Chang was carried out in the 1950s that led to the first birth control pill. Pincus died in 1967 at age 63. The tributaries flowing into the development of the oral contraceptive were numerous and temporally distributed across two decades, going back to the extraction of a substance from the roots of a jungle plant by

Russell Marker Russell Earl Marker (March 12, 1902 – March 3, 1995) was an American chemist who invented the octane rating system when he was working at the Ethyl Corporation. Later in his career, he went on to found a steroid industry in Mexico when he s ...

that was readily convertible to pregnanediol and then to

progesterone Progesterone (P4) is an endogenous steroid and progestogen sex hormone involved in the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and embryogenesis of humans and other species. It belongs to a group of steroid hormones called the progestogens and is the major ...

in two steps, the subsequent chemical synthesis of

s by Carl Djerassi, Luis Miramontes, and

, and the discovery by Gregory Pincus and M.C. Chang at the Worcester Foundation that a compound sent to be tested by the G. D. Searle Pharmaceutical Company was, contrary to expectations, a potent anti-ovulatory progestin."

Recognition

*In 1964, the contraceptive pill was chosen by the US Department of Patents as one of the 40 registered more important

inventions An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an i ...

between 1794 and 1964. The name of Luis Miramontes appeared next to

Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named after ...

, Edison,

Bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an intern ...

, the Wright brothers and others of equal stature. It was included in the "USA Inventors Hall of Fame". *In 1985 he received the "

Estado de Mexico The State of Mexico ( es, Estado de México; ), officially just Mexico ( es, México), is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Commonly known as Edomex (from ) to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is ...

" Medal, in the area of sciences and arts; as well as a public recognition from the government of the state of Nayarit, and an academic recognition from the Technological Institute of

. *He received the Mexican National Prize on Chemistry " Andrés Manuel del Rio" in 1986. *In 1989 he became a " pugwashite", that is, member of the

Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is an international organization that brings together scholars and public figures to work toward reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats. It was fo ...

, organization promoting peace and world development, after attending the 39th Pugwash Conference: Building Global Security through Cooperation held at Cambridge, USA. The Pugwash Conferences were awarded the Peace

in 1995. *In 1992 the General Hospital of Zone no. 1, of the Mexican Institute of Social Security, in

, was named "Luis Ernesto Miramontes Cardenas Hospital". *In 1994 the Mexican Ministry of Health recognized his scientific contributions, when installing the National Program on Family Planning in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. *He received in 1998, on behalf of the government of the state of

, the "Amado Nervo" Medal. mario molina

*In 2000, the

contraceptive pill Oral contraceptives, abbreviated OCPs, also known as birth control pills, are medications taken by mouth for the purpose of birth control. Female Two types of female oral contraceptive pill, taken once per day, are widely available: * The combin ...

was denominated three times as one of the most important inventions of the last 2000 years, by a group of outstanding persons, that included several Nobel laurates. *In 2001, at the 50th Anniversary of the synthesis of

, the

UNAM The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...

and the Mexican Ministry of Health, organized individual tributes to Miramontes and Rosencraz. *In 2003,

was considered one of the most important 17 molecules that have influenced the history of humankind. *In 2004, the invention of Luis E. Miramontes was chosen as the twentieth most important one of all the times. The election was organized by SCENTA, an initiative of The Engineering and Technology Board of the United Kingdom. *In 2005, the

Mexican Academy of Sciences The Mexican Academy of Sciences ''(Academia Mexicana de Ciencias)'' is a non-profit organization comprising over 1800 distinguished Mexican scientists, attached to various institutions in the country, as well as a number of eminent foreign coll ...

, named the invention of Miramontes as the Mexican most important contribution to world science ever. *In 2009, the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

of London nominated him as one of the five most important Latin American researchers of all the times *In 2009, The School of Chemistry of

recognized him as one of the most successful and important scientists to have received a degree from it *In 2009, The School of Chemistry of

honored him by naming the 2009 year prize QUIMIUNAM after him. *In 2010, TCE Today, published by the IChemE regarded him "one of the chemical engineers who changed the world" *In 2010, The Innovators of America initiative nominated him a top Icon & Legend of America *In 2011 was named one of the world’s most influential chemical engineers of all time by the IChemE (Institution of Chemical Engineers). * In 2011, The Mexican Institute of Chemical Engineers IMIQ named after him the Prize "Ing. Luis Ernesto Miramontes Cárdenas" aimed to recognize outstanding Mexicans in Chemical Engineering R&D . Luis E. Miramontes,

Andrés Manuel del Río Andrés Manuel del Río y Fernández (10 November 1764 – 23 March 1849) was a Spanish– Mexican scientist, naturalist and engineer who discovered compounds of ''vanadium'' in 1801. He proposed that the element be given the name ''panchromium ...

(discoverer of

vanadium Vanadium is a chemical element with the symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery-grey, malleable transition metal. The elemental metal is rarely found in nature, but once isolated artificially, the formation of an oxide layer ( pass ...

) and

Mario Molina Mario José Molina-Pasquel Henríquez (19 March 19437 October 2020), known as Mario Molina, was a Mexican chemist. He played a pivotal role in the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole, and was a co-recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemis ...

, Chemistry

in 1995, are the three most important Mexican chemists of all time.

Selected publications related to his invention

*Miramontes L; Rosenkranz G; Djerassi C. 1951

Journal of the American Chemical Society The ''Journal of the American Chemical Society'' is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1879 by the American Chemical Society. The journal has absorbed two other publications in its history, the ''Journal of Analytical ...

73 (7): 3540-3541 Steroids .22. The Synthesis Of 19-Nor-Progesterone *Sandoval A; Miramontes L; Rosenkranz G; Djerassi C. 1951

73 (3): 990-991. The dienone–phenol rearrangement *Sandoval A; Miramontes L; Rosenkranz G; Djerassi C; Sondheimer F. 1953

75 (16): 4117-4118 Steroids .69. 19-Nor-Desoxycorticosterone, A Potent Mineralocorticoid Hormone *Mancera O; Miramontes L; Rosenkranz G; Sondheimer F; Djerassi C. 1953

75 (18): 4428-4429 Steroidal Sapogenins .28. The Reaction Of Peracids With Enol Acetates Of Delta-8-7-Keto And Delta-8-11-Keto Steroidal Sapogenins *Djerassi C; Miramontes L; Rosenkranz G. 1953

75 (18): 4440-4442 Steroids .48. 19-Norprogesterone, A Potent Progestational Hormone *Djerassi C; Miramontes L; Rosenkranz G; Sondheimer F. 1954

76 (16): 4092-4094 Steroids .54. Synthesis Of 19-Nor-17-Alpha-Ethynyltestosterone And 19-Nor-17-Alpha-Methyltestosterone *Miramontes L; Aguinaco P; Romero MA. 1960

82(23): 6153-6155 Synthesis of 6-Methyl Steroids

Patented inventions

* Carl Djerassi, Luis Miramontes, George Rosenkranz (1956), ''Delta 4-19-nor-17alpha-ethinylandrosten-17beta-ol-3-one and process'', United States Patent 2744122 * Carl Djerassi, Luis Miramontes (1956), ''Cyclopentanophenanthrene derivatives and compounds'', United States Patent 2759951. * Carl Djerassi, Luis Miramontes, George Rosenkranz (1956), ''17alpha-methyl-19-nortesterone'', United States Patent 2774777. * Miramontes Luis E., Romero Miguel A, Ahuad Farjat Fortunato (1959), ''Preparation of 6-methyl steroids of the pregnane series from diosgenin'', United States Patent 2878246. * Miramontes Luis E., Romero Miguel A, Fritsche O, ''Preparation of 6-methyl steroids of the pregnane series'', United States Patent 2878247. * Miramontes Luis E. (1959), ''Procedure for obtaining sapogenins from natural un-dried products'', United States Patent 2912362. * Carl Djerassi, Luis Miramontes, George Rosenkranz (1959), ''DELTA.4-19-NOR-17.alpha.-ETHINYLANDROSTEN-17.beta.-OL-3 ONE''
Canada Patent CA 571510
* Miramontes Luis E., Romero Miguel A (1960), ''12alpha-hydroxy-12beta-methyltigogenin and 12-methylene steroids derived therefrom'', United States Patent 2954375. * Miramontes Luis E., Romero Miguel A, Ahuad Farjat Fortunato (1961), ''3beta-alkanoyloxy-6-methyl-5,16-pregnadien-20-ones'', United States Patent 3000914. * Miramontes Luis E. (1961), ''Process for the production of 3beta-hydroxy-16alpha, 17alpha-epoxy-5-pregnen-20-one'', United States Patent 3004967. * Miramontes Luis E. (1961), ''Resolution of sapogenin mixtures and intermediate products'', United States Patent 3013010. * Miramontes Luis E. (1962), ''Hecogenin azine and alkyliden-azinotigogenins'', United States Patent 3033857. * Miramontes Luis E., Fritsche Oscar, Romero Miguel A (1963), ''DEHYDRO-OXYGENATED-6-METHYL-16.alpha.,17.alpha.-EPOXYPREGN-20-ONE-DERIVATIVES''

* Miramonte, Luis E., Flores Humberto J (1968), ''Process for isolation of solanum alkaloids from solanum plants'', United States Patent 3385844. * Miramonte, Luis E. (1972), ''Process for the conversion of exhaust gases of the internal combustion engines into harmless products'', United States Patent 3808805. * Miramontes Luis E., Castillo Cervantes Salavador, Moran Pineda Florencia M (1996), ''Catalytically active ceramic monoliths for the reduction of leaded gasoline-fueled engine pollutants and the production thereof'', United States Patent 5534475.

References

*Lara V. Marks. Sexual Chemistry: A History of the Contraceptive Pill.372 pp. New Haven, Conn., Yale University Press, 2001. *Carl Djerassi. Steroids Made It Possible. American Chemical Society, Washington

External links

Books about the history of the pill mentioning Luis Miramontes discovery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miramontes, Luis E. 1925 births 2004 deaths People from Tepic Syntex Mexican chemists Mexican chemical engineers National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni National Autonomous University of Mexico faculty Mexican inventors 20th-century inventors