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Pharbitis nil seedlings rapidly metabolized (-)-kaurene-17-(14)C administered to the cotyledons. Less than 20% of the radioactivity was recovered by extraction of the cotyledons on the following day. Of this the major metabolite was an unidentified acidic material which did not correspond chromatographically to any of the known gibberellins.Significant differences were observed between the radioactivity found in the buds of a group of seedlings subjected to photoperiodic floral induction and that in a noninduced group. In both cases almost all of this radioactivity was in the neutral fraction, but thin-layer chromatography of these fractions revealed that the induced group contained 2 or more labelled components which were either absent or present in lower concentrations in the noninduced group.

After administration of pregnenolone-4-C(14) to Holarrhena floribunda leaves, radioactive progesterone was isolated and purified to constant specific activity by chromatography, conversion to a derivative, and recrystallization. The result suggests that the biogenetic sequence leading to progesterone is the same in plants as in animals.

Crystalline lithocholic (3alpha-hydroxycholanic) acid was isolated from a pooled sample of feces from healthy men for the first time. This acid, which occurs in small amounts in human bile, was obtained by alcohol extraction, followed by solvent partition and chromatography. Under these conditions most of the acid was recovered in the form of its methyl ester.

The presence of stigmasterol in tomato fruits was demonstrated. Labeled mevalonic acid was incorporated into this sterol, while sodium acetate was not. The identity of the isolated product was established by rigorous purification to constant specific activity, melting point determinations, and infrared spectrum.

A single dose of mevalonic acid-2-(14)C was administered simultaneously to 6 Haplopappus heterophyllus plants. They were harvested at intervals ranging from 3 days to 6 months. Four groups of biosynthetically related sterols were found to be radioactive in each plant, and the changes in radioactivity with time were studied. The most striking finding was a radioactive phenolic material present only in the 6-month plant, which had flowered.