Science: Cortisone (Cont'd)

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For victims of rheumatoid arthritis impatiently awaiting a boost in the tiny supply of cortisone, there was another slender ray of hope this week. While it might take years to make the hormone from seeds of the over-trumpeted vine Strophanthus sarmentosus (TIME, Aug. 29), a more abundant and more accessible plant has been named as a source of the raw material.

In the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Dr. Russell E. Marker, veteran hormone researcher, reported that botogenin, a substance providing a short cut to one of the 37 stages in the expensive, laborious transformation of ox bile into cortisone, was found in a common yam of tropical America, Dioscorea mexicana.

No one had yet finished the complicated job of making cortisone from yams, but researchers could start trying at once. No costly task force (like the one sent to Africa to gather Strophanthus seeds) is needed to get the yams. Sometimes weighing 30 pounds, they grow in many parts of Mexico and Central America.