Jungle Laboratories: Mexican Peasants, National Projects, and the Making of the Pill

by Gabriela Soto Laveaga

Book Overview

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 pharmaceutical industry. Yet few people today are aware of Mexico's role in achieving these advances in modern medicine. In Jungle Laboratories , Gabriela...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822345870
• ISBN13: 9780822345879
• Release Date: December 2009
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.4"