It may sound odd but the humble tuber- the yam shaped modern medicine. In the 1940s, chemist Russell Marker was searching for a cheap source of steroid-like compounds. He found that wild Mexican yams were rich in diosgenin a compound that could be converted into steroids. Russell Marker invented the process that turned these yam tubers into steroids, progesterone, cortisone, which were the foundation of birth control pills and sparked a revolution in affordable hormone medicine that treat thousands of medical maladies.
Growing Home - Yam Tubers and Steroids
