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Laboratorios Syntex SA was a pharmaceutical company formed in Mexico City in 1944 by Russell Marker to manufacture therapeutic steroids from the Mexican yams called cabeza de negro (Dioscorea mexicana) and Barbasco (Dioscorea composita). The demand for barbasco by Syntex initiated the Mexican barbasco trade.[1] Syntex chemists synthesized cortisone from diosgenin, a phytosteroid contained in Mexican yams. Syntex was integrated into the Roche group in 1994.