Mexican barbasco trade

The trade started when Russell Marker, a chemist looking for a plant source from which to extract diosgenin and saponin, traveled to Veracruz looking for the yam Dioscorea mexicana which he suspected might be suitable.

When he discovered that the root was indeed a significant source of diosgenin, he established Syntex, the first Mexican fine chemical company dedicated to producing semisynthetic hormones from Barbasco.

With the discovery of the chemical properties of the barbasco root, world market prices for steroids and other synthetic hormones plummeted, making them feasible for large-scale production of medicines for common ailments such as arthritis or Addison's disease, and eventually as the basis for the combined oral contraceptive pill.

[1][2] This development sparked a barbasco extraction industry centered on the barbasco-rich areas of southeastern Mexico, in Northern Oaxaca, Southern Veracruz and Puebla states.

[5] The acopio owners knew more about the process and eventually invented ways of improving the diosgenin concentration in roots collected by adding different solvents to the tubers before shipping them to the beneficios.

In the late 1970s, populist President Luis Echeverría sought to organize and nationalize the barbasco trade in order to provide more benefits to the barbasqueros and to the Mexican state.