Although cinchona bark, which the Spanish had obtained in the Andes in the mid-1600s, worked against malaria, most Europeans saw this remedy in terms of tumors. They believed that what they called "spasms of the blood" caused the intermittent fevers of malaria and that cinchona bark fixed this malfunction by increasing the flow of the blood and the well-being of the muscles,
Problems with cinchona persisted. There are some 40 species, ranging in size from shrubby plants to tall, slender trees with symmetrical crowns, and leaves at least eight inches long. Bark adulterated with other ingredients was often sold, as was bark from one of the dozens of species of cinchona that contained fewer anti-malarial properties. Given the variability in quality of cinchona, even the most skilled healers often had difficulty knowing what dosage of bark to prescribe. The bark, furthermore, was extremely bitter. Even when soaked in brandy or gin for a week, this bitterness was often too much for a patient to endure.
To make matters worse, cinchona was almost always expensive. The cinchona tree
grew over wide areas-ranging from Colombia to Bolivia. Collecting cinchona bark was dangerous because the trees grew in rough terrain. Bark collectors had to climb into the mountains, braving insects, filthy water, fatal infections, and dangerous cliffs. They usually worked in groups so that if one or two died, the others could return with the bark. It was not unusual for them to encounter the bones of previous collectors.
One of the first acts of the U.S. Continental Congress was to appropriate 300 dollars for cinchona bark for George Washington's troops. Treating malaria, then the most common disease in America, was essential for the war effort.
Despite high costs, the potential demand for cinchona was extraordinary. Malaria was so common in the newly formed United States that many people took its fevers and chills for granted. They saw suffering from malaria symptoms as normal and did not even consider themselves sick,
When Thomas Jefferson, who had malaria, ordered Meriwether Lewis and William
Clark to explore the recently acquired Louisiana Territory, Congress authorized expenditure of one-third of their medical budget for powder from cinchona bark,
The experience of Lewis and Clark demonstrates how the bark, despite its expense, was used for other purposes. Cinchona bark can reduce fever by dilating the small vessels of the skin, and it can give pain relief by suppressing some parts of the central nervous system. Someone on the expedition accidentally shot Lewis just below the hip joint. The explorer suffered great pain and a high fever, Treatment consisted of applying a heated cloth medicated with cinchona bark to the wound on the assumption that it combated all fevers no matter what the cause. Lewis spent a restless night. The next day he felt sore, but could move, and the fever was gone.
By the early 19th century, efforts were being made to locate anti-malarial medicines from other plants. One candidate was lobelia, a flowering plant found in the eastern United States and Canada. Modern science has found it to have no anti-malarial or anti-fever qualities. But it does stimulate the respiratory center of the brain stem, and from the 1920s to the 1950s Western doctors used it to restore breathing after shock. Because the dried leaves and other parts of lobelia act like nicotine, some antismoking preparations include it.
Given the price of cinchona and the need to measure how effective any batch of bark would be, scientists kept looking for the active agent within it that reduces fever.
In 1820 French researchers isolated this agent and named it "quinine" after the Spanish word quina for cinchona. Quinine, which could be taken as a pill, was easier to administer than medications made from bark. It was also easy to establish and confirm dosage: When people bought quinine, unlike their purchase of bark, they could make sure they got what they were paying for.
Quinine probably kills malaria-causing parasites by preventing them from using glucose, but it kills only parasites in the red blood cells. When a person stops taking quinine, parasites elsewhere in the body bring back the disease.
Quinine, furthermore, can be slow acting-and it has major side effects: Among
other things, it often causes rashes, dizziness, and ringing in the ears. And it can stimulate the pancreas to produce too much insulin. It can also bring about deafness and can cause miscarriages.
Although cinchona bark and quinine were effective and could be taken prophylactically to prevent malaria, knowledge about them did not spread as quickly as might be expected. Part of the reason was that many doctors, as well as patients, clung to the Galenic belief that for a cure to occur, the body had to expel a fluid. Further resistance to their use came from continued ill feeling among Protestants toward the Jesuits. Price was also a factor. Cinchona bark lay unsold in some European ports in the late 17th century.
Many physicians in the United States did not routinely use cinchona until more than 150 years after its discovery. In the l830s, according to the New Orleans Medical Journal, malarial treatment primarily consisted of "thorough evacuation" - the giving of plants or chemicals that caused severe diarrhea - in the early stages of the fever, and then taking blood.
By the mid- and late 19th century, over-harvesting of cinchona trees threatened the world supply. Repeated expeditions into the Amazon attempted to bring out species of cinchona trees that would grow well on plantations in other areas. These expeditions had to overcome obstacles. One aggressive Bolivian threatened to cut off the feet of anyone caught attempting to smuggle cinchona seeds from the country. Expeditions failed after leaving South America because seedlings died or because collectors had brought back seeds with a low yield of quinine. Then Charles Ledger, a British trader in alpacas, purchased 14 pounds of seeds from eastern slopes of the Andes in Bolivia. These seeds, he had been told, would produce trees that yielded high levels of quinine.
British authorities did not want to buy the seeds, but Dutch officials purchased one pound for 40 dollars. It produced trees of such extremely high quinine content that the Dutch bought the rest of the trader's seeds, Thirty years later, when Java's plantations dominated the world quinine market, the Dutch gave Ledger an annual pension. The person who told Ledger about the trees apparently received nothing.
Resistance to quinine became a problem of worldwide proportions by the late 19th century. Malaria then killed or crippled four million children under age ten each year in India alone. Epidemics occurred along the Thames River and persisted in areas of northern Europe. Malaria was prevalent throughout the southern portion of the United States, Well into the 20th century the disease was still the world's leading cause of illness and death.
The key to preventing and treating malaria was understanding how it is transmitted, Various cultures held a range of beliefs, including the correct observation that mosquitoes transmit malaria, In Swahili malaria is called mbu, the word for "mosquito:' In some parts of Africa rural people associated malaria with the rainy-_or mosquito-season, when they took herbs that provide protection against it, They used plants as natural insecticides and insect repellents,
Ancient Greeks associated malaria with swamps, but blamed the disease on night air, This thought was not far off target because mosquitoes fly mostly at night. But rather than notice mosquitoes, the Greeks blamed malaria on noxious miasma they believed was exuded by the ground. The word "malaria," derived from the Italian words mala aria or bad air, first appeared in writing in the mid-1700s describing a disease that seemed to emanate from swamps near Rome.
One researcher in Philadelphia in the early 1800s tested the theory that direct contact spread malaria. He inhaled vapors from vomit of people with malaria and injected their vomit into cats, dogs, and himself. None got malaria. This convinced him, scientifically, that the disease is not contagious.
In 1880 researchers realized that a protozoan causes malaria, They associated this protozoan with mosquitoes and suspected that drinking water in which mosquitoes had bred spread the disease. Scientists could not believe it possible for a parasite to live in a mosquito and then in a human. But by 1896, when researchers discovered that the malaria-causing protozoan could, indeed, live in mosquitoes and humans, researchers had confirmed that mosquito bites spread the disease to humans.
Where can I buy Quinine?
ZooScape.com has a wide selection of Cinchona capsules, powder, liquid extracts, creams, salves and tea.
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