Learn about the tree that saved “millions of people” and changed the map of the world

Manu National Park, where the Amazon Basin meets the Andes Mountains in southwestern Peru, is distinguished by its unique biodiversity. Shrouded in mist, covered in a maze of climbing plants and dominated by pristine nature, this green nature reserve covers an area of ​​​​1.5 million hectares. 

If you delve into the dense forest trees and cross its flowing rivers, avoiding spotted tigers and mountain lions, you may see one of the few remaining endangered Cinchona officinalis trees, which are slender trees up to 15 meters tall, and are native to the foothills of the Andes Mountains. 

But this tree has shaped human history for centuries and many legends have been woven around it. 

Natalie Canals, a biologist at the National Museum of Denmark who hails from the Amazon forest region in Peru, says that the compound extracted from this tree has saved the lives of millions throughout history.

Quinine is extracted from the bark of this rare tree, which is the first drug to treat malaria in the world. Hundreds of years ago, the discovery of this substance was welcomed by some and raised doubts by others around the world. In recent weeks, this medical substance has become the subject of widespread international controversy. Some have promoted laboratory-created alternatives to quinine, such as chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, as potential treatments for the emerging coronavirus. 

Malaria, which is caused by parasites transmitted by mosquitoes between humans, is one of the deadliest diseases in human history, as it invaded the Roman Empire several centuries ago and claimed the lives of between 150 and 300 million people in the twentieth century. 

In the Middle Ages, many treatments were used for malaria, which means “bad air” in Italian, indicating that they believed in the past that it was transmitted through the air. These treatments ranged from bloodletting and amputation of limbs to making a hole in the skull. The bark of Cinchona officinalis, the first known cure for malaria, is said to have been discovered in the Andes in the 17th century. 

It is said that the Spanish Countess of Chinchón, the wife of the governor of Peru, had a fever and was shaking violently, which are two main symptoms of malaria. Then her husband gave her a mixture prepared by Jesuit priests from the bark of a tree in the Andes, along with cloves and some dried plants, in the hope that it would cure her of her illness. The Countess soon recovered. This tree has become a national emblem of Peru and Ecuador.

This story may contain some correct information, as quinine, an alkaloid extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree, actually kills the parasite that causes malaria. But some historians say that the indigenous tribes that inhabited Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador knew quinine before Jesuit priests discovered it. 

The indigenous people provided the bark to the Jesuit priests, who ground it and turned it into a bitter-tasting powder that became known as “Jesuit Powder.” It quickly spread throughout Europe, and the Europeans wrote about the magical cure for malaria that had been discovered in the forests of the New World. In the mid-17th century, Jesuit priests established trade routes to transport bark across Europe. 

Quinine was used in France to treat King Louis XIV of fever attacks. The Pope's doctor in Rome conducted experiments on quinine powder, and the Jesuit priests distributed it to the public for free. 

The Royal College of Physicians included cinchona bark in the British Pharmacopoeia as an official drug in 1677. 

To meet the growing demand for quinine, Europeans used local people to forage the Cinchona officinalis tree, or cinchona, in the rainforest, obtain its bark, and load it onto cargo ships in Peruvian ports. The eucalyptus tree soon became rare. 

The value of cinchona bark rose in the nineteenth century, coinciding with colonial expansions, when malaria became a major threat to European armies in foreign colonies. Obtaining quinine has become one of the strategic advantages in the race for global hegemony. 





Dr. Rohan Deep Roy, author of the book “Malaria Topics,” says that malaria claimed the lives of many European soldiers in colonial wars, and the drug quinine helped soldiers survive 

In the period between 1841 and 1861, the British government was spending the equivalent of 6.4 million pounds sterling annually on importing cinchona bark to store for its soldiers in the colonies. This is why many historians believe that quinine was the most important tool that enabled the British Empire to achieve its expansionist ambitions. 

The competition between European countries was not limited to quinine, but also to the seeds of the cinchona tree. Roy says that the British and Dutch governments were seeking to grow eucalyptus trees in their colonies instead of importing them from South America. 

In the mid-nineteenth century, the British established eucalyptus plantations in southern India, where malaria was rampant. The British authorities quickly distributed cinchona extracted from locally grown trees to soldiers and civilian employees. It is rumored that they used to mix quinine with the alcoholic gin drink to make it palatable, and then they invented the gin drink mixed with carbonated tonic water, which contains quinine. 

Lies spread about the benefits of gin and tonic water to prevent malaria, to the point that Winston Churchill praised the benefits of this drink and stated that it saved the lives of large numbers of Englishmen whom all doctors in the empire were unable to save. 

Many drinks containing quinine became widespread, such as pisco mixed with tonic water, Campari, the French aperitif Lillette, and Debonnais wine, which was invented by a French chemist to give quinine a palatable taste for the French armies in North Africa. 

Although the drug "artemisinin" appeared in the 1970s as an alternative drug for treating malaria, the demand for quinine left a legacy that is still clear in various countries of the world. The Dutch turned the city of Bandung, the capital of West Java, Indonesia, into the largest global center for quinine. 

Quinine played a major role in the spread of the English language in India, Hong Kong, Sierra Leone, Kenya and Sri Lanka, and the French language in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. 

In the midst of the search for quinine in the mid-nineteenth century, Bolivia and Peru obtained a monopoly on the export of cinchona tree bark. Bolivia spent the profits from eucalyptus bark exports on constructing La Paz's cathedral, paving its stone streets, and building its wide squares in the historic heart of the city. 

However, the increasing demand for eucalyptus bark has left visible scars on the tree's natural habitat. In 1805, explorers recorded 25,000 eucalyptus trees on the slopes of the Andes Mountains in Ecuador, of which only 29 trees now remain in the same area. 

Canals says that removing species rich in quinine from the eucalyptus tree in the Andes changed the genetic makeup of the plant and weakened its ability to develop and change. She believes that eucalyptus trees contain less quinine due to overharvesting. 

Canals says that the discovery of new drugs in the future depends on protecting the eucalyptus trees and the original habitat of these trees, which are rich in biodiversity. 

Patricia Schlagenhoff, professor of travel medicine at the University of Zurich, says that the story of quinine indicates that biodiversity is closely linked to human health. Plants may be credited with the major medical discoveries in human history.