History of Quinine

History of Quinine
The therapeutic properties of the ‘fever tree’, which grows wild in the Andes, were revealed to European by Amerindian healers.

Ever since is acceptance in 1640 as a proven remedy for the malaria disease, quinine has been the mainstay of malaria treatment and still is today.

The history begin with Spanish colonial expansion in the New World. By 1560 the Spanish military conquest and associated civil wars of Peru were largely over.

The early efforts in the collection and shipment the bark indicate how useful Europeans found the bark to be. There are several reports that by around 1600 some Europeans had been cured of fever by Peruvian bark.

Jesuit priests living in Peru returned to Europe with the bark of certain tree that, when boiled and the water drink, greatly improved the survival chances of a malaria victim.

The first European purportedly cured of fever by the bark was the countess of Chinchon, wife of the viceroy of Peru.

As the story goes, in 1638, the Corregidor of Loxa, Don Juan Lopez de Canizares on hearing that the countess was in Lima suffering from a tertian fever, sent to her physician – Juan de Vega – a package of the powdered bark, by means of which he effected a complete cure.

The countess, greatly pleased by this turn of affairs, purchased a large quantity of the bark and distributed it to the afflicted of the city.

On her return to Spain in 1640, she took with her a supply of the bark, introducing it to Europe. After the cure of the countess, the Jesuits were great promoters of the bark in Europe.

Once introduced to Europe, cinchona (as it was then known) became the drug of choice after use by such famous patients as Charles II and the Archduke Leopold.

Despite its bitter taste and the fact that it sometimes produced deafness, nausea and vomiting, or that its method of action was still mysterious, quinine became known as a miraculous drug.
Its use was linked with serious risks including its association with blackwater fever, an occasional complication of malaria, but known to be one of the commonest causes of death among expatriates in Africa.

It is suspected that irregular doses of quinine used as a prophylactic may have caused this much feared disease.

In the mid-eighteenth century, the famous Swedish doctor and botanist Linnaeus created the genus Cinchona in memory of the Countess de Chinchon.

In the nineteenth century, cinchona traveled to the laboratory and to the plantation. Experimental science, particularly chemistry, made cinchona and its extracts the subject of intense investigation.

In the laboratory, pharmacists chemically extra quinine from the bark, purifying and quantifying it. This was period when the active ingredients of a number of medicinal plants were first extracted.
History of Quinine