Process for producing an estrone acetal

摘要

PCT No. PCT/JP84/00030 Sec. 371 Date Sep. 21, 1984 Sec. 102(e) Date Sep. 21, 1984 PCT Filed Feb. 1, 1984 PCT Pub. No. WO84/03094 PCT Pub. Date Aug. 16, 1984.A process of preparing radical anions which comprises reacting sodium and a polycyclic aromatic compound in a reaction solvent to prepare radical anions and supplying androstane-1,4-diene-3,17-dione-17-acetal into the obtained reaction mixture to reduce the same into an estrone acetal, characterized in that a solvent comprising polyethers having three or more ether bonds and maintained at a concentration higher than a predetermined value is used as the reaction solvent and the reaction is carried out at a temperature of from the melting point of sodium to 105 DEG C. The process according to this invention can produce an estrone acetal at a high yield and with economical advantages in the industrial scale and the estrone acetal thus obtained is useful as an estrone precursor which is important as a female hormone.