<Tr> <Th> Children </Th> <Td> Percy Lavon Julian, Jr . (1940--2008) Faith Roselle Julian (1944--) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Parent (s) </Th> <Td> Elizabeth Lena Adams (1878--1926) James Sumner Julian (1871--1951) </Td> </Tr> <P> Percy Lavon Julian (April 11, 1899--April 19, 1975) was an African American research chemist and a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants . He was the first to synthesize the natural product physostigmine, and a pioneer in the industrial large - scale chemical synthesis of the human hormones progesterone and testosterone from plant sterols such as stigmasterol and sitosterol . His work laid the foundation for the steroid drug industry's production of cortisone, other corticosteroids, and birth control pills . </P> <P> He later started his own company to synthesize steroid intermediates from the wild Mexican yam . His work helped greatly reduce the cost of steroid intermediates to large multinational pharmaceutical companies, helping to significantly expand the use of several important drugs . </P>

Who was the african american scientist who created synthetic physostigmine