Talk:Mexican barbasco trade

COPYVIOs and SYNTH by disruptive IP-hopping anonymous editor

I reverted the reintroduction of WP:COPYVIO and WP:SYNTH paragraphs to the "Scientific discovery of medicinal properties" and "End of the barbasco era" sections by persistently disruptive IP-hopping anonymous editor 132.236.120.83 / 71.240.253.202
(aka 71.182.111.225 / 71.123.25.175 141.149.208.54 / 71.123.29.191 / 71.182.123.65 / 71.123.17.215 / 71.182.107.102 / 70.16.52.193 / 70.16.61.75 / 71.182.100.111 / 71.240.244.35 / 71.123.31.25 / 71.240.247.110 / 70.16.49.248 / 71.182.108.43 / 71.182.98.194):

WP:COPYVIO re-added 22:53, 25 July 2012 to the "Scientific discovery of medicinal properties" section:

Unfortunately, corporate competition and difficult labor conditions eventually forced him to close his plant.
But Marker's method of synthesizing progesterone continued to be used, bringing the price down drastically and helping to pave the way for the modern birth control pill.
Progesterone continued to be manufactured from wild yam for decades, until a cheaper source of raw material was found in cultivated soybeans.

from: (anonymous) (2011) "Wild Yam". Ipswich, Mass.: EBSCO Publishing:

Unfortunately, corporate competition and difficult labor conditions eventually forced him to close his plant.
But Marker's method of synthesizing progesterone continued to be used, bringing the price down drastically and helping to pave the way for the modern birth control pill.
Progesterone continued to be manufactured from wild yam for decades, until a cheaper source of raw material was found in cultivated soybeans.

WP:COPYVIO re-added 22:39, 25 July 2012 to the "End of the barbasco era" section:

After too many price hikes in the barbasco, the steroid industry largely went to semisynthetic modification of the phytosterols from soybeans.
There are two common sources of sterols: the production of soybean oil leaves a waste rich in stigmasterol and sitosterol; the tubers of Mexican barbasco contain diosgenin.
Competing directly with barbasco were other natural products, such as soy, soybean and henequen (hecogenin).

from Duke, James A. (1993). "Medicinal plants and the pharmaceutical industry". in Janick, Jules.; Simon, James E. (eds.) New crops; Proceedings of the Second National Symposium New Crops—Exploration, Research, and Commercialization, Indianapolis, Indiana, October 6-9, 1991. New York: Wiley, ISBN 0471593745, pp. 664–669:

After too many price hikes in the barbasco, the steroid industry largely went to semisynthetic modification of the phytosterols from temperate soybeans.

and from Trehan, Keshav (1990). Biotechnology. New Dehli: New Age International, ISBN 8122401295, p. 24:

There are two common sources of sterols: the production of soybean oil leaves, a waste product rich in stigmasterol and sitosterol; the roots of the Mexican barbasco plant contain diosgenin.

and from Soto Laveaga, Gabriela (2009). Jungle laboratories: Mexican peasants, national projects and the making of the Pill. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, ISBN 9780822346050, p. 198:

Competing directly with barbasco were other natural products, such as soy and henequen, which yielded compounds similar in chemical structure to barbasco's diosgenin.⁷

The WP:SYNTH is the stringing together of dated and poor sources to produce undue emphasis on soya sterols as THE replacement to Mexican diosgenin in the commercial production of steroids. Current and better sources (like Soto Laveaga's 2009 Jungle Laboratories and Evans' 2009 Pharmacognosy, 16th ed.) list soya sterols as merely one of many replacements for Mexican diosgenin in the commercial production of steroids (with others including Chinese diosgenin, hecogenin, total synthesis, etc.).

The anonymously-authored EBSCO "Wild Yam" fact sheet is not a reliable source. The only historical reference it cites is a 31-year-old pharmacognosy textbook:

• Tyler, Varro E.; Brady, Lynn R.; Robbers, James E. (1981). Pharmacognosy, 8th ed. Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger, ISBN 0812107934, p. 185.

which does not support the EBSCO "Wild Yam" fact sheet's statement that:

Progesterone continued to be manufactured from wild yam for decades, until a cheaper source of raw material was found in cultivated soybeans.

A more current pharmacognosy textbook:

• Evans, William Charles (2009). Pharmacognosy, 16th ed. Edinburgh: Saunders Elsevier, ISBN 9780702029332, p. 308, says:

  Until 1970 diosgenin isolated from the Mexican yam was the sole source for steroidal contraceptive manufacture. With the nationalization of the Mexican industry, however, prices were increased to such an extent that manufacturers switched to hecongenin for corticosteroids, to other sources of diosgenin and to the use of steroidal alkaloids of Solanum species. Total synthesis also became economically feasible and is now much used. More recently, the economics of steroid production have again changed in that China is now exporting large quantities of diosgenin; it is of high quality, being free of the 25β-isomer yamogenin, although this is of no commercial significance, and is reasonably priced. Three of the many Dioscorea spp. found in China and used commercially are given in Table 23.2; the tubers yield 2% diosgenin, with the average content of diosgenin for the main areas of production (Yunnan Province and south of the Yangtze River) being 1%.

The 21-year-old 1991 conference proceedings paper by James A. Duke, which said:

After too many price hikes in the barbasco, the steroid industry largely went to semisynthetic modification of the phytosterols from temperate soybeans.

also conflicts with above current pharmacognosy textbook.

The anonymously-authored EBSCO "Wild Yam" fact sheet also said:

Unfortunately, corporate competition and difficult labor conditions eventually forced him [Russell Marker] to close his plant.

which is true, but out of context:

Marker co-founded Syntex in March 1944, left Syntex in May 1945 to found Botanica-Mex, which produced progesterone from July 1945 to March 1946, then sold the assets of Botanica-Mex to the Hungarian firm Gedeon Richter, which renamed it Hormonsynth, which Marker advised until 1949 when he quit doing chemistry. Gedeon Richter sold Hormonsynth to the Dutch firm Organon in 1951, which renamed it Diosynth (with headquarters in the United States) with its Mexican subsidiary named Quimica Esteroidal, S.A. de C.V. Organon was part of KZO, which became AKZO in 1969, which became AkzoNobel in 1994, was acquired by Schering-Plough in 2007, which merged with Merck in 2009.

Noting in this article that Marker's (second) company (Botanica-Mex) failed is inappropriate and misleading, since its successor continued into the 21st century, and Marker's first company, Syntex, was the preeminent Mexican commercial producer of steroids for decades, played a significant role in the development of the oral contraceptive pill, and its U.S. successor continued for fifty years before being absorbed by Roche in 1994.

Lynn4 (talk) 17:49, 27 July 2012 (UTC)