DISCOVERY OF QUININE

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 127, 30 May 1941, Page 3

DISCOVERY OF QUININE

A recent Press item states that huge quantities of quinine from the Netherland East Indies, which to-day produce about 90 per cent. oi*the world’s output, are being flown by Dutch airlines to A.I.F. troops in the Middle East and Malaya to combat fever. The virtues of this medicine were discovered in a very singular manner. In a small village in Peru the wind had blown certain trees into a pool, which was used by the inhabitants as a reservoir. Disliking the resulting bitterness of the water, they sought their supply elsewhere. One man, however, who was ill of fever, wandered near this pool and, consumed by thirst, bent down and drank greedily. Soon afterwards he astonished his friends by a complete recovery, and told them to what he attributed his cure. The story reached the ears of the Countess Del Chincon, wife of the Viceroy, who caused the bark to be tested. Some say she herself was cured of a fever by its use; certainly it was first sent to Europe by her in 1639, where it was called “countess’s” or “Chincona” powder. At one time Peruvian bark was solely grown in and exported from Peru, but ignorance and carelessness have caused the supply to become scarce, while careful plantations made in the Dutch Indies towards the end of last century are now yielding wonderful results.