Trenbolone cyclohexylmethylcarbonate was prepared as follows: 3 g of 17/3-hydroxy-estradiol-4,9,11-trien-3-one was dissolved in pyridine at 15 C at 0 C under stirring and nitrogen atmosphere. The temperature was maintained between 0 and 10 degrees Celsius. Slowly add 50 ml of hexahydrobenzyl chloroformate, then warm the entire mixture to ambient temperature, stir for 2 hours, then cool to 0 degrees Celsius. Triethylamine was added and stirred for 30 minutes to bring the temperature up to ambient temperature and the reaction mixture was poured into a water/ice mixture. It was extracted with dichloromethane and the organic phase was washed with water to neutral, dried over sodium sulfate and evaporated to dryness in vacuum. The residue was separated by chromatography on silica gel, eluting with a 4:1 mixture of benzene/ethyl acetate, and the product was recrystallized from an isopropyl ether/hexane mixture. Chromatographic separation was again carried out on silica gel, eluting with a benzene/ethyl acetate ethyl acetate mixture, and finally recrystallized from cyclohexane and petroleum ether to give 1.60 g of cyclohexylmethyl carbonate of trenbolone. The product appeared as a prism soluble in ethanol, ether, benzene, acetone and chloroform, but insoluble in water, dilute acids and aqueous alkali solutions.
