Laboratory of Steroid Chemistry

Head of the Laboratory: Vladimir A. Khripach
Academican of NASB, Professor, D. Sc. (chemistry)
Laureate of State Prize of Republic of Belarus

phone: +375 (17) 267-86-47, 374-86-47
e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

About the Laboratory

Established in 1973.

From 1973 to 1981 the Laboratory was headed by Fedor A. Lakhvich, academician of NASB, D.Sc., professor, Laureate of State Prize of Republic of Belarus.

Personnel: 16 researchers including 3 D.Sc. and 2 Ph.D.

Research directions

• Biological important steroids and their analogues: synthesis, biosynthesis, analytical studies.
• Brassinosteroids and related oxysterols: synthesis, biological activity, structure — function studies, biomedical and agricultural applications.
• Technology and pharmacology of plant steroid hormones (brassinosteroids).

Main achievements and developments

• Syntheses and physiological evaluation of a wide range of heterocyclic steroids and finding the derivatives with high anti-inflammatory, cardiotonic, anti-allergic, immunotropic activities promising for clinical applications.
• Nitrile oxide methodology for carbon-carbon bond formation and construction in this way of new polyfunctionilized cyclic systems for application to the total synthesis of steroids and their analogs, antibiotics, and to selective formation of complex-modified side-chains of natural steroids.
• Efficient syntheses of natural brassinosteroids and their analogs, comprehensive studies of their effects in plants.
• Discovery of the adaptogenic effect of plant steroid hormones outside the plant kingdom.
• Detection of cholesterol-lowering and antiviral activity   of  brassinosteroids promising for medical applications.
• Immunochemical kits for selective determination of all major types of brassinosteroids in plants and in physiological fluids.
• Development of new brassinosteroid-based products:
  - brassinosteroid-based agrochemicals Epin and Epin Plus for enhancement of crop yield and quality, for increasing the resistance of plants to stress conditions and diseases;
  - new  forms of complex  fertilizers and fungicides   with    brassinosteroids as additional active components that lead to higher efficacy of the agrochemicals;
  - preparation Apibrassin for bee-breading and dietary supplement Fitonol for humans with immune stimulating, tonic and adaptogenic effect;
  - preparation Bravidifen for treatment and prevention of viral infections in birds.

Selected publications

1. Khripach VA, Zhabinskii VN, de Groot A. Brassinosteroids. A new class of plant hormones. San Diego: Academic Press; 1999.
2. Khripach VA, Zhabinskii VN, Litvinovskaya RP. Immunoassays of brassinosteroids. In: Hayat S, Ahmad A, editors. Brassinosteroids: A Class of Plant Hormone. Dordrecht: Springer; 2011. p. 375-92.
3. Khripach VA, Zhabinskii VN, Khripach NB. New practical aspects of brassinosteroids and results of their ten-year agricultural use in Russia and Belarus. In: S.Hayat, A.Ahmad, editors. Brassinosteroids. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers; 2003. p. 189-230.
4. Khripach V, Zhabinskii V, de Groot A. Twenty years of brassinosteroids: steroidal plant hormones warrant better crops for the XXI century. Annals of Botany. 2000;86:441-7.
5. Zhabinskii  V.N., Khripach N.B., Khripach V.A. Steroid plant hormones: effects outside plant kingdom. // Steroids. - 2015. V. 97. P. 87-97.