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The History Of Quinine: The history of quinine through the years has been inextricably bound up with the history of the cinchona trees. Soon after its introduction into Europe the demand for the bark became so great that the plants in South America were stripped, and the quinine industry in South America was nearly stopped before it had started. Attention was immediately focused on growing the trees in other countries. In 1860, this was tried in Java, Jamaica, India, Ceylon, and Australia. Interest in the project was stimulated by the Dutch East Indian government, and Java became the flourishing center of the quinine industry.Chemically, quinine is precipitated as an amorphous, colorless, bulky powder when alkalies are added to a well-cooled acid_ solution of the alkaloid. Anhydrous quinine is sparingly soluble in water, but readily so in alcohol, ether, and chloroform. Quinine is a diacidic base forming both neutral and acid salts. The alkaloid and its salts are intensely bitter to the taste. In common with other alkaloids of this group, quinine has the property of forming molecular compounds with a variety of organic substances.
By intensive cultivation, the Dutch planters produced a better quality of quinine in a greater quantity than could be produced from the low-yielding South American bark. The Dutch thus cornered the world market for quinine, and at the start of the Second World War 90 per cent of the world's supply of quinine came from the Netherlands East Indies. When the Japanese invaded this area early in 1942, the entire supply of the quinine and cinchona bark to the United Nations was cut off. |
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