Origins of Cinchona Bark
Cinchona is a large shrub or small tree from the rubiaceae family of flowering plants. It is native to South America and most well known for its medicinal properties. It is a source of a variety of alkaloids most notably quinine which acts as an effective antipyretic - anti-fever medication. And it was soon discovered to be an effective treatment for malaria. In fact, modern treatments for malaria are derived from the same chemical back bone found in cinchona bark!
Cinchona Bark’s Role in History
Cinchona was believed to be named after Countess of Chinchon, the wife of a spanish Viceroy of Peru.The story goes that after contracting “an attack of fever” while visiting Peru in 1630, a spanish governor advised a traditional remedy which led to her miraculous recovery. Although the etymology of cinchona bark has been debunked in recent historical literature, the bark still had an integral role in medicine and economics throughout the world at the time.
News of the miraculous recovery and the great medicinal properties of cinchona bark soon spread around the world. Early strains of the tree had very low percentages of quinine (approximately 1.5%) and thus the race was on to cultivate a strain of cinchona which had a high yield of quinine. It wasn't until 1865 when a man by the name of Charles Ledge was able to smuggle out protected seeds of the plant from Bolivia and sold to the Dutch was Europe able to access cinchona with quinine content ranging from 8-13.25%. It was allegedly sold for a hefty fee of 20 dollars, which at the was believed to be the cost of manhattan.
The new strain was named Cinchona calisaya ledgariana, and it put an end to the monopoly of high yielding cinchona which South America held at the time!
Quinine in the 20th century
As the years went by, quinine was proving to be an ineffective treatment with numerous unpleasant side effects and a growing resistance to the drug. After WWII the Allies essentially lost access to all supplies of quinine as it was primarily imported from Dutch Indonesia and Java which were both occupied by Japan. While its second source, Amsterdam was captured by Germany. As a result there was a big push in research for the development of synthetic antimalarial medication.
Despite the development of relatively successful antimalarial medications in recent years, there were an estimated 229 million cases of malaria worldwide in 2019 (WHO). Like the story of most 20th century drugs, it is always a flight against drug resistance!
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