Am  Jour  Pharm.  ) 
December,  1920.  j 
Quinine  Sulphate  in  Java. 
919 
tion  of  the  trees,  and  during  the  first  half  of  the  past  century  many 
travellers  discussed  the  possibility  of  cultivating  cinchona  in  other 
parts  of  the  world.  The  first  plantation  of  this  valuable  tree  was 
undertaken  by  Markham  in  1859  in  British  India,  while  the  planting 
of  seventy-five  cinchona  plants  at  Tjibodas  in  1854  marked  the 
beginning  of  its  cultivation  in  Java.  Prior  to  the  isolation  of  its 
alkaloids,  cinchona  was  used  in  the  form  of  powdered  bark,  decoc- 
tions, extracts,  etc.  The  following  are  the  principal  cinchona  alka- 
loids : 
Quinine,  discovered  by  Pelletier  and  Caventou  in  1820. 
Quinidine,  discovered  by  Henry  and  Delondre  in  1833. 
Cinchonine,  discovered  by  Duncan  in  1820,  and  made  known  by 
Pelletier  and  Caventou. 
Cinchonidine,  discovered  by  Winkler  in  1848. 
In  addition  there  are  numerous  other  substances  present,  such 
as  quinamin,  conchinamin,  pariein,  etc. 
In  view  of  the  fact  that  about  95  per  cent,  of  the  bark  is  of  no 
use  to  the  manufacturer  of  quinine,  it  is  evident  that  already  at  an 
early  date  in  the  history  of  quinine  production  steps  were  taken  to 
obviate  the  necessity  of  conveying  the  whole  bark  a  long  distance 
to  a  factory — for  instance,  to  Europe.  Already  in  1793  mention  is 
made  of  an  extract  of  cinchona  prepared  in  South  America,  and  in 
1820  an  extract  of  cinchona  was  imported  into  Hamburg  bearing  a 
label  with  "Extracto  superior  de  Quina  de  la  Fabrica  de  Benito 
Sebastian  &  Co.,  Cuzco."  In  1841  there  existed  a  quinine  factory 
in  Bolivia,  but  since  the  product  was  very  impure  it  was  little  in 
request.  Delondre,  who  was  himself  a  manufacturer  of  quinine, 
erected  in  1847  a  factory  in  Valparaiso,  which  was  closed  in  the 
following  year.  The  first  production  of  quinine  in  Asia  took  place 
at  Ootacamund,  in  British  India,  and  the  author  refers  very  fully  to 
Broughton's  enterprise  in  this  connection.  The  method  adopted 
by  the  latter  fifty  years  ago  is  not  without  interest.  Briefly,  it 
consisted  in  boiling  the  fresh  bark  with  i  per  cent,  sulphuric  acid; 
the  liquid  was  then  evaporated  to  one-sixth  of  its  volume,  trans- 
ferred to  a  wooden  vat  and  an  excess  of  lime  water  added;  after 
filtering,  the  precipitate  was  dried,  mixed  with  alcohol,  to  which  a 
little  sulphuric  acid  was  added,  and  by  precipitation  with  caustic 
soda  a  product  was  obtained  which  Broughton  called  "amorphous 
quinine."  This  was  stated  to  contain  18  per  cent,  of  quinine,  54 
per  cent,  of  cinchonidine,  13  per  cent,  of  cinchonine;  amorphous 
