THE CURE?
It has been called with good cause “The Tree of Life” and “The Miracle Plant that Saved the World.”
Donald Trump recently brought it to public attention, albeit indirectly. In a press conference he mentioned possibly “game-changing” malaria drugs for treating corona virus.
Medical experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, are less enthusiastic than Trump, and are urging caution.
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"Cinchona pubescens" is commonly called cascarilla, red cinchona, quina, quineira. It is native to central and South America.
Cascarilla is known for its medicinal properties. Its bark is the source of quinine which is used to treat malaria.
Always resilient, often invasive, cascarilla varies in size, from short to 10 meters (33 feet) in height.
Quinine was first isolated from the bark in 1820, but extracts have been used to treat malaria since at least 1632. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines needed in a health system. The wholesale price in the developing world is about US$1.70 to $3.40 per course of treatment. In the United States a treatment costs more than $200.
So, how did a common plant come to be associated with a cure for malaria?
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Two stories.
(1) Malaria is not native to the Americas. Spanish conquistadores and colonists brought it in the 1400s-1500s.
However, the medicinal properties of cascarilla were not unknown. Pre-Columbian Natives since time immemorial used cascarilla as a cure for headaches, fevers, colds and other maladies.
Legend has it that in the 1600s the Countess of Chinchón, Spain was gravely ill with malaria. Her doctor gave her no chance of survival. A Jesuit priest heard about her plight and brought her a bundle of cascarilla from Loja, Ecuador. After drinking an infusion for several days, the Countess was completely cured.
(2) A traveler wandering in the South American wilderness was going mad from malaria-induced fever. He came upon a pothole filled with dirty water. He was in such agony he decided he had nothing to lose, and took a drink. Within hours, his fever disappeared.
The traveler looked around and noticed cascarilla growing near the pothole.
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The export of cascarilla-produced quinine quickly became an economic boom for Ecuador and other Andean nations. The tide started to turn, however, in 1860, when the Englishman Richard Spruce stole seeds. By 1880, English and Dutch plantations of cascarilla in Southeast Asian colonies monopolized the trade. Even Andean nations were forced to buy quinine from them.
During World War II, Japanese conquests closed off the plantations for the Western allies. Production of cascarilla-quinine restarted in the Andes, only to subside when the war was over.