46 



DRUGS AMD MEDICINAL PLANTS. 



CINCHONA BARKS AND THEIR CULTIVATION* 

 I propose to give a brief sketch of some of the results of the cultivation 

 of cinchona bark, and before doing so, will only venture on a mere reference to 

 the previous history of the cinchona barks and to the chemistry of their alkaloids ; 

 for the former I would refer anyone interested in the subject to the admirable 

 work by Sir Clements Markham, entitled " Peruvian Bark," and for the latter to 

 Leger's admirable monograph, " Les alcaloids des Quinquinas." 



Quinine and its cognate alkaloids have hitherto only been found in the barks 

 of the genus cinchona and the allied genus remgia. These are only found in a 

 limited zone of the eastern slopes of the Andes, and nothing was known to 

 Europeans of their medicinal properties till some time after the Spanish conquest. 

 It is not certain whether the Indians were aware of them, but if they were, they 

 concealed their knowledge from their conquerors. In 1638, the wife of the governor, 

 the Count of Chinchon, being very ill with malarial fever was cured by the 

 administration of a hitherto unknown remedy, and she took great pains to introduce 

 its use in Europe, and hence the name of the genus which purists spell Chinchona. 



The chemistry of these barks was investigated by Dr. Gomes, a Portuguese, 

 who isolated cinchonine in 1816, and in 1820 Pelletier and Caventou isolated quinine, 

 and the alkaloid has since then taken the place of the bulky powdered bark that 

 was formei'ly employed in medicine. The later investigations into the properties 

 and relations of the various cinchona alkaloids opens up so wide a subject that I 

 will not attempt to go into it, especially as I have very little that is unpublished 

 to add to the stock of knowledge. 



From that time the use of cinchona bark and quinine in medicine steadily 

 increased, and as the collection of the bark was in the hands of ignorant Indians 

 who never thought of planting trees to replace those cut down, district after 

 district was denuded of the trees, and there was every prospect of most inefficient 

 supplies if not of extinction of the genus. 



In British India there was not only a great demand for quinine, but climatic 

 conditions very similar to those on the Andes, and the government wisely deter- 

 mined to set about the introduction of the cinchona into the country. It was no 

 easy matter, the bark collectors arguing rightly enough that if the bark was culti- 

 vated elsewhere their occupation wonld be gone, and any one who was even 

 suspected of an attempt to carry off plants or seeds went in peril of his life. Unde- 

 terred by these difficulties, Sir Clements Markham and his coadjutors arranged 

 expeditions into the districts from which the most valuable species were procured, 

 and after adventures, far more interesting than those of a novel, succeeded in 

 bringing home plants in Wardian cans and seeds of various species, specially of 

 the succirubra and officinalis. 



It all sounds very easy, but to get the plants alive to the coast, to keep 

 them alive on the voyage to England, and again through the Red Sea was a triumph 

 of skill and patience. When they reached India, they were cultivated with infinite 

 care and skill at Darjiling and on the Himalayas. At the former place the govern- 

 ment were fortunate in securing the services of a Scotchman named Maclvor, who 

 nursed them as only a Scotch gardener can. The cultivation prospered and spread 

 to other districts of India and Ceylon, and for 10 or 15 years the greater part of 

 the quinine supply of the world was obtained from India and Ceylon. 



* A paper read at a recent meeting of the Loudon Section of the Society of Chemical 

 Industry, by David Howard. 



