Mexican Peasants, National Projects, and the Making of the Pill
by
Gabriela Soto Laveaga
Language: English
Release Date: December 23, 2009
In the 1940s chemists discovered that barbasco, a wild yam indigenous to Mexico, could be used to mass-produce synthetic steroid hormones. Barbasco spurred the development of new drugs, including cortisone and the first viable oral contraceptives, and positioned Mexico as a major player in the global...