2-oxa-methyldienolone, a forgotten super steroid
Until 1969, steroid chemists considered methyltrenbolone [chemical structure on the right] to be the most powerful anabolic ever synthesized in a lab. But after two American researchers started experimenting with 2-oxa-methyldienolone, they changed their minds.
Killer drug
In the 1960s, the anabolic steroid methyltrenbolone rolled out of the laboratories, which gained the reputation of a killer drug shortly after the first disastrous human study. [Steroids. 1966;8(1):13-24.] In this study, methyltrenbolone coupled an extreme anabolic effect with a significant liver toxicity.
For a few years, methyltrenbolone was the strongest anabolic steroid that people had ever made. And still, if you are asking a well-informed anabol expert what exactly is the very strongest anabolic steroid science has ever created, he will probably mention methyltrenbolone.
If you limit yourself to steroids that have been tested on people, this answer is correct. But in 1969, two researchers from the American pharmaceutical company Searle, published an animal study which introduced an anabolic steroid that knocked methyltrenbolone off its throne.
Dienolones
The researchers experimented with a class of anabolic steroids that veterans in the anabolics environment will be familiar with. Two of the steroids tested were marketed as designer steroid at the beginning of this century. Then we are talking about Compounds I and II in the figure below, which you might know as dienolone and methyldienolone.
In the table below, the researchers compared the anabolic and androgenic effects of the steroids tested with those of methyltestosterone. The researchers administered their agents orally, dissolved in corn oil. They used rats as test animals. You can read more about the research method here.
As you can see, dienolone or Compound I had slightly more anabolic and slightly less androgenic effects than methyltestosterone. Methyldienolone aka Compound II was already a lot more powerful, and had 6 times more androgenic effects than methyltestosterone, and 80 times more anabolic.
However, the most interesting steroids that the researchers tested were compound III and IV. These anabolics did not have a carbon atom at the C2 position in their skeleton, but an oxygen atom. For convenience, we call these two steroids 2-oxa-dienolone and 2-oxa-methyldienolone.
The substitution caused the androgenic and anabolic effect of 2-oxa-dienolone [Compound III] to exceed that of methyltestosterone by a factor of 6 and 93, respectively.
2-oxa-methyldienolone [Compound IV] worked even better. This steroid had about 30 times androgenic effect than methyltestosterone, and no less than 550 times more anabolic effect.
Conclusions
"The increases in activity, both androgenic and myotrophic, with changes in the structure of the parent molecule in this series were dramatic", write the researchers. "Highest biological activity was reached in the 17a-methyl-2-oxa (IV) derivative, which is the most potent androgenic-myotrophic substance reported to date that also possesses a wide separation of anabolic from androgenic properties."
"Recently, methyltrienolone [17 alpha-methyl-4,9(10),ll-trien-17-beta-ol-3-one] was also reported to have very high myotrophic activity, [Ann Endocrinol (Paris). 1965;26:95-101.] but it lacked the high degree of preferential stimulation of the levator ani muscle that was characteristic of the 17a-methyl-2-oxa derivative (IV)."
Source: Endocrinology.1969;84(2):441-2.
Until 1969, steroid chemists considered methyltrenbolone [chemical structure on the right] to be the most powerful anabolic ever synthesized in a lab. But after two American researchers started experimenting with 2-oxa-methyldienolone, they changed their minds.
Killer drug
In the 1960s, the anabolic steroid methyltrenbolone rolled out of the laboratories, which gained the reputation of a killer drug shortly after the first disastrous human study. [Steroids. 1966;8(1):13-24.] In this study, methyltrenbolone coupled an extreme anabolic effect with a significant liver toxicity.
For a few years, methyltrenbolone was the strongest anabolic steroid that people had ever made. And still, if you are asking a well-informed anabol expert what exactly is the very strongest anabolic steroid science has ever created, he will probably mention methyltrenbolone.
If you limit yourself to steroids that have been tested on people, this answer is correct. But in 1969, two researchers from the American pharmaceutical company Searle, published an animal study which introduced an anabolic steroid that knocked methyltrenbolone off its throne.
Dienolones
The researchers experimented with a class of anabolic steroids that veterans in the anabolics environment will be familiar with. Two of the steroids tested were marketed as designer steroid at the beginning of this century. Then we are talking about Compounds I and II in the figure below, which you might know as dienolone and methyldienolone.
In the table below, the researchers compared the anabolic and androgenic effects of the steroids tested with those of methyltestosterone. The researchers administered their agents orally, dissolved in corn oil. They used rats as test animals. You can read more about the research method here.
As you can see, dienolone or Compound I had slightly more anabolic and slightly less androgenic effects than methyltestosterone. Methyldienolone aka Compound II was already a lot more powerful, and had 6 times more androgenic effects than methyltestosterone, and 80 times more anabolic.
However, the most interesting steroids that the researchers tested were compound III and IV. These anabolics did not have a carbon atom at the C2 position in their skeleton, but an oxygen atom. For convenience, we call these two steroids 2-oxa-dienolone and 2-oxa-methyldienolone.
The substitution caused the androgenic and anabolic effect of 2-oxa-dienolone [Compound III] to exceed that of methyltestosterone by a factor of 6 and 93, respectively.
2-oxa-methyldienolone [Compound IV] worked even better. This steroid had about 30 times androgenic effect than methyltestosterone, and no less than 550 times more anabolic effect.
Conclusions
"The increases in activity, both androgenic and myotrophic, with changes in the structure of the parent molecule in this series were dramatic", write the researchers. "Highest biological activity was reached in the 17a-methyl-2-oxa (IV) derivative, which is the most potent androgenic-myotrophic substance reported to date that also possesses a wide separation of anabolic from androgenic properties."
"Recently, methyltrienolone [17 alpha-methyl-4,9(10),ll-trien-17-beta-ol-3-one] was also reported to have very high myotrophic activity, [Ann Endocrinol (Paris). 1965;26:95-101.] but it lacked the high degree of preferential stimulation of the levator ani muscle that was characteristic of the 17a-methyl-2-oxa derivative (IV)."
Source: Endocrinology.1969;84(2):441-2.
