Spectroscopic Analysis of Steroids

All the steroids are basically made of seventeen carbon atom skeletons bonded in four fused rings: three six-membered cyclohexane rings and one fivemembered cyclopentane ring, they vary from each other by having different functional groups. Recent modifications have added heteroatoms like nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur, selenium, etc in the basic structure of naturally occurring steroids. Heterocyclic steroids have always been a field of interest for researchers due to their diverse biological performances. The biological activity of steroids and heterocyclic steroids is based on the structure they possess. Spectroscopy plays a key role in the determination of distinct properties of numerous compounds by their interaction with electromagnetic radiation and the sort of interactions that may occur in different regions. The structure of different steroids and heterocyclic steroids may be established through various spectroscopic techniques viz. Infrared spectroscopy (IR), Nuclear Magnetic Spectroscopy (NMR), Ultraviolet spectroscopy (UV) and mass spectrometry (MS). 

Keywords: Absorbance, Beer-Lambert law, Cholesterol, Electromagnetic radiation, Fourier Transform (FT), Fragmentation, Hook’s law, hypsochromic effect, Infrared spectroscopy, Larmor precession, Mass spectrometry, McLafferty rearrangement, nuclear spin, Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Nuclear overhauser effect, Pascal’s triangle, rotational and vibrational energy levels, Steroids, U.V. spectroscopy.