GENERAL STEPS: (3BETA)-17-(1H-benzimidazol-1-yl)androsta-5,16-dien-3-ol 3-acetate (1.3 g, 3.02 mmol) was dissolved in methanol (20 mL) under an inert argon (Ar) atmosphere. To the resulting solution was added 10% potassium methanol (KOH) solution (8 mL). The reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature for 1.5 h. The reaction mixture was subsequently concentrated under reduced pressure to a volume of about 10 mL at about 40 °C. The concentrated solution was poured into ice water (300 mL), and the precipitated white precipitate was filtered, washed with water and dried. The target product (3β-hydroxy-17-(1H-benzimidazol-1-yl)androsta-5,16-diene) was obtained by solvent recrystallization over a mixture of ethyl acetate (EtOAc)/methanol (MeOH) (1.10 g, 94% yield), melting point 189-190 °C. Infrared spectra (CHCl3) showed absorption peaks located at 2934, 2339, 1609, 1490, 1453, 1291, 1040, 837, 808, 705, 663, 608, 578, 550, 517 cm-1 .1H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl3) δ 1.02 (s, 3H, 18-CH3) 1.07 (s, 3H, 19-CH3), 3.55 (m, 1H, 3α-H), 5.41 (br s, 1H, 6-H), 5.99 (s, 1H, 16-H), 7.30 (m, 2H, aromatic-H), 7.54 (s, 1H, aromatic-H), 7.80 (s, 1H, aromatic-H), 7.96 (s, 1H, 2X-H). . The calculated value of high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) was 411.2407 (C26H32ON2-Na+) and the measured value was 411.2396.