How Was Quinine Discovered?

The discovery of quinine arguably ranks as the most serendipitous medical discovery of the 17th century. From 1630 to the 1920s, it was considered the best malaria treatment available.

Legend

• The legend of quinine’s accidental discovery in the Andean mountains of South America began when an Indian with a high fever came upon a stagnant pool of water, according to DiscoveriesInMedicine.com. When he drank from the pool, the water tasted bitter but his fever went away.

Effect

• Realizing the water was contaminated by quina-quina trees, the man identified a substance that we call quinine. He shared his discovery with fellow villagers, who found it useful for treating the symptoms of malaria.

Geography

• Quina-quina trees grew well on humid hillsides at altitudes of 5,000 feet and above from Columbia to Bolivia, so were readily available to native tribes.

History

• In 1630, Jesuit missionaries in Lima, Peru, documented how they successfully treated malarial infections with extracts from the cinchona tree. Since the cinchona tree is the same as the villagers’ quina-quina tree, many experts believe native villagers showed the Jesuits how to extract quinine from the bark of the tree.

Significance

• In 2010, 380 years after the Jesuits documented its effectiveness, quinine is still the basis of a number of successful antimalarial drugs.