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The cinchona tree grows in the forests of the western Andes in South America. It is said that its bark was first recognized as a cure for malaria when a native Peruvian, hot and thirsty with fever, drank from a pool of water in the forest, despite its bitterness – some cinchona trees had fallen into the water, and their bark had made it bitter. He soon became well, and so cinchona bark was used as a remedy ever after.
The Peruvian Indians called it ‘quina-quina’; hence our name for it, quinine (see the illlustration in the 'Peoples of the World' section on this website).
It became known as Peruvian Bark (and also as Jesuit’s Bark) because its use was first described by Jesuit missionary priests working in Peru in the early 17th century. It is one of the most important discoveries in the history of medicine; as early as 1650 the renowned doctor Sebastian Bado declared that Peruvian Bark was more precious than all the gold of South America. The tree was named cinchona after the Countess of Chinchon in Spain, wife of the viceroy of Peru, who was cured of malaria in 1630.
Count Chinchon and various Jesuit priests brought the bark from Lima back to Spain, and its use spread from there all over Europe – the young Louis XIV of France is said to have been cured of fever. The Jesuit cardinal John de Lugo set up trade routes for Peruvian Bark from South America through Spain and Italy, and was energetic in promoting its use; as late as the 18th century the bark from Jesuit pharmacies had a good reputation for purity, because it was the Jesuits who controlled the supply.
Again, it was the Jesuits who brought cinchona bark to China and Japan, and the Jesuits who set up cinchona plantations.
At first it was preparations made from the bark itself that was used as the remedy. Then in the 19th century cinchona alkaloids began to be produced from the bark on an industrial scale, and cinchona plantations were set up in Java, Ceylon and India. Today, quinine is synthesised by a chemical process.
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