[3] The identification of the spirostan structure, with its ketone spiro acetal functionality, was fundamental in the development of the Marker degradation, which allowed the industrial production of progesterone and other sex hormones from plant steroids.

[5] It has also attracted pharmaceutical interest in its own right,[6][7][8] and is found in the rhizome of Anemarrhena asphodeloides, called zhī mǔ (知母) in traditional Chinese medicine, from which it is extracted commercially.

After removal of the fat from the resulting gum, the glycosidic linkage is hydrolyzed with hydrochloric acid (approx.

Tschesche and Hagedorn proposed an unreactive double tetrahydrofuran structure based on degradation studies which indicated an ether oxygen atom attached to C-16.

[6] Both steroids also halted the decline in muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs) in animal models of Alzheimer's disease.