Why Merck interested in beta sitosterol( Saw Palmetto)?

I wonder if Finasteride is made from Beta sitosterol( Saw Palmetto)? if not then why Merck is interested in Betasitosterole?why it sponsored the following study?
I have received the following email from a girl who is suffering like us after taking saw palmetto.

hi there – I would like to resume our conversation about plant sterols below because I am concerned it could potentially be critical to our problem. This results of this test that I took came out all in the red, including sitosterol which may be our number one culprit. Would you be willing to get the tests done below that I had done? (though I don’t know what lab does it in Canada)? Would you please ask other sp sufferers on the forum who live in the US to get the test done from myhdl.com?
Check out this article which is really over my head but may be of significance, I don’t know?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merck_&_Co.
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7570607

I wonder if finasteride has beta sitosterol in it or plant sterols? Who can figure that out for us? [/b]

Can you think of anyone else on the forum who is in medical/scientist who might be able to assimiliate this info well ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2642922/ knowing that I am a hyper absorber of all plant sterols and that cholesterol is where hormone production begins (I think?) ? Maybe mew would have some ideas? Will you please forward this email in it’s entirety to him ? Please let me know any responses you get if any. Your thoughts? Thanks

Guys please, if possible get these tests done. Since Fin and saw palmetto work the same way, maybe the reason for getting affected is hyper absorption of sterols.
this is second email from the same girl and she is hyper absorber of sterols.
[b]I had a slew of tests done in November from Health Diagnostic Laboratory Inc, www.myhdl.com.
They have a panel for Sterols. One section was Sterol Absorption Markers. All of my test results in this section came out in the hyper range, meaning I am a hyper absorber of plant sterols. Here are my test results:

  1. Campesterol 6.19 (2.11-4.43)
  2. Campesterol Ratio 319 (115-240)
  3. Sitosterol Ratio 240 (76-168)
  4. Cholestanol 5.06 (2.02-3.47)
  5. Cholestanol Ratio 269 (117-194) [/b]