Quinine was used as a muscle relaxant by the
Quechua people, who are indigenous to
Peru,
Bolivia and
Ecuador, to halt shivering. The Quechua would mix the ground bark of
cinchona trees with sweetened water to offset the bark's bitter taste, thus producing something similar to
tonic water. Spanish
Jesuit missionaries were the first to bring cinchona to Europe. The Spanish had observed the Quechua's use of cinchona and were aware of the medicinal properties of cinchona bark by the 1570s or earlier:
Nicolás Monardes (1571) and Juan Fragoso (1572) both described a tree, which was subsequently identified as the cinchona tree, whose bark was used to produce a drink to treat
diarrhea. Quinine has been used in unextracted form by Europeans since at least the early 17th century. A popular story of how it was brought to Europe by the
Countess of Chinchon was debunked by medical historian
Alec Haggis around 1941. During the 17th century, malaria was endemic to the
swamps and
marshes surrounding the city of
Rome. It had caused the deaths of several
popes, many
cardinals and countless common Roman citizens. Most of the Catholic
priests trained in Rome had seen malaria patients and were familiar with the
shivering brought on by the
febrile phase of the disease. The
Jesuit Agostino Salumbrino (1564–1642), an
apothecary by training who lived in
Lima (now in present-day
Peru), observed the Quechua using the bark of the cinchona tree to treat such shivering. While its effect in treating malaria (and malaria-induced shivering) was unrelated to its effect in controlling shivering from
rigors, it was a successful medicine against malaria. At the first opportunity, Salumbrino sent a small quantity to Rome for testing as a malaria treatment. In the years that followed, cinchona bark, known as
Jesuit's bark or Peruvian bark, became one of the most valuable commodities shipped from Peru to Europe. When
King Charles II was cured of malaria at the end of the 17th Century with quinine, it became popular in
London. It remained the antimalarial drug of choice until the 1940s, when other drugs took over. The form of quinine most effective in treating malaria was found by
Charles Marie de La Condamine in 1737. In 1820, French researchers
Pierre Joseph Pelletier and
Joseph Bienaimé Caventou first isolated quinine from the bark of a tree in the genus
Cinchona – probably
Cinchona pubescens – and subsequently named the substance. The name was derived from the original
Quechua (Inca) word for the cinchona tree bark,
quina or
quina-quina, which means "bark of bark" or "holy bark". Prior to 1820, the bark was dried, ground to a fine powder, and mixed into a liquid (commonly wine) in order to be drunk. Large-scale use of quinine as a malaria
prophylaxis started around 1850. In 1853
Paul Briquet published a brief history and discussion of the literature on "quinquina". Quinine played a significant role in the colonization of Africa by Europeans. The availability of quinine for treatment had been said to be the prime reason Africa ceased to be known as the "white man's grave". A historian said, "it was quinine's efficacy that gave colonists fresh opportunities to swarm into the
Gold Coast,
Nigeria and other parts of west Africa". To maintain their monopoly on cinchona bark, Peru and surrounding countries began outlawing the export of cinchona seeds and saplings in the early 19th century. In 1865,
Manuel Incra Mamani collected seeds from a plant particularly high in quinine and provided them to
Charles Ledger. Ledger sent them to his brother, who sold them to the Dutch government. Mamani was arrested on a seed collecting trip in 1871, and beaten so severely, likely because of providing the seeds to foreigners, that he died soon afterwards. By the late 19th century the Dutch grew the plants in Indonesian plantations. Soon they became the main suppliers of the tree. In 1913 they set up the
Kina Bureau, a cartel of cinchona producers charged with controlling price and production. By the 1930s Dutch plantations in
Java were producing 22 million pounds of cinchona bark, or 97% of the world's quinine production. Quinine remained the antimalarial drug of choice until after World War II. Since then, other drugs that have fewer side effects, such as
chloroquine, have largely replaced it.
Bromo Quinine were
brand name cold tablets containing quinine, manufactured by Grove Laboratories. They were first marketed in 1889 and available until at least the 1960s. Conducting research in central Missouri,
John S. Sappington independently developed an anti-malaria pill from quinine. Sappington began importing cinchona bark from Peru in 1820. In 1832, using quinine derived from the cinchona bark, Sappington developed a pill to treat a variety of fevers, such as scarlet fever, yellow fever, and influenza in addition to malaria. These illnesses were widespread in the Missouri and Mississippi valleys. He manufactured and sold "Dr. Sappington's Anti-Fever Pills" across Missouri. Demand became so great that within three years, Sappington founded a company known as Sappington and Sons to sell his pills nationwide. ==Society and culture==