Malaria is one of the most dangerous diseases on the planet, killing over a million people every year. This is the story behind the natural drug that cures malaria.

The indigenous tribes of the Andes have known for a long time that a certain tree can be used to cure malaria sufferers. The bark of the “quinquina” (pronounced keen-keena) tree has a disagreeably bitter taste, but when eaten it eases the fever within days. The tree’s name in fact means “bark of barks”. The modern scientific name for the tree, Cinchona, was given in 1742 by the great botanist Linnaeus. This name is an homage to the Countess of Chinchona, who in 1638 was cured by the bark, and later introduced the tree to European medicine.

This bark was exactly what the European powers needed, as it allowed colonisation of the tropics and expansion of their empires. Bark extract was used to make tonic water, and so malaria is the reason behind the British habit of sipping Gin and Tonics. At times the bark became so valuable that it was worth its weight in gold, and so there was enormous pressure to domesticate the tree.

During 1820 the chemical responsible for the antimalarial effect was isolated. Quinine, named after the indigenous word for the Cinchona tree, is an alkaloid. Alkaloids are a huge family of plant chemicals, including caffeine and morphine, that have large effects on animals. The Cinchona tree probably produces quinine in its bark as an insecticide.

In the 1850s seeds were smuggled from South America and cultivated in Java, with huge financial rewards for the Dutch. The severe quinine shortage caused by the Japanese capture of Java in 1942, however, prompted the development of synthetic alternatives. Chloroquine was the first such synthetic antimalarial drug to be developed.

Natural quinine is now making a come-back as an anitmalarial drug though. The Plasmodium that causes the disease is evolving resistance to the synthesised compounds.