In 1951, Doukas and Fontaine reported2 that spirostanes such as I are reduced to furostanols, such as 11, by the addition of solid lithium aluminum hydride (LAH) to an ethereal solution of the spirostane saturated with anhydrous hydrogen chloride or hydrogen bromide. This report was noteworthy for two reasons. The combination of reagents employed was rather unusual.(Neither LAH nor hydrogen halides by themselves affected I ...