Editing Cinchona (section)

===Economic significance===
[[File:Cortex_peruvianus_Leeuwenhoek.jpg|thumb|''Cortex peruvianus'' study by [[Antonie van Leeuwenhoek]], 1706]]
The "fever tree" was finally described carefully by astronomer [[Charles Marie de la Condamine]], who visited [[Quito]] in 1735 on a quest to measure an [[Meridian arc|arc of the meridian]]. The species he described, ''Cinchona officinalis'', however, was found to be of little therapeutic value. The first living plants seen in Europe were ''C. calisaya'' plants grown at the ''Jardin des Plantes'' from seeds collected by [[Hugh Algernon Weddell]] from [[Bolivia]] in 1846.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/manualofcinchona00kinguoft#page/n7/mode/2up|title=A manual of ''Cinchona'' cultivation in India|author=King, George|publisher=Government Press|year=1880|edition=2|place=Calcutta|pages=1–2}}</ref> [[José Celestino Mutis]], physician to the Viceroy of Nueva Granada, Pedro Messia de la Cerda, gathered information on cinchona in [[Colombia]] from 1760 and wrote a manuscript, ''El Arcano de la Quina'' (1793), with illustrations. He proposed a Spanish expedition to search for plants of commercial value, which was approved in 1783 and was continued after his death in 1808 by his nephew Sinforoso Mutis.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kirkbride Jr.|first=Joseph H.|date=1982|title=The Cinchona Species of Jose Celestino Mutis|journal=Taxon|volume=31|issue=4|pages=693–697|jstor=219686|doi=10.2307/1219686|bibcode=1982Taxon..31..693K }}</ref> As demand for the bark increased, the trees in the forests began to be destroyed. To maintain their monopoly on cinchona bark, Peru and surrounding countries began outlawing the export of cinchona seeds and saplings beginning in the early 19th century.<ref>{{cite journal|title=A critical review of the basic facts in the history of ''Cinchona'' |author=Jaramillo-Arango, Jaime| pages=272–311| year=1949| journal=Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Botany|volume= 53|issue=352|doi=10.1111/j.1095-8339.1949.tb00419.x}}</ref>

The colonial European powers eventually considered growing the plant in other parts of the tropics. The French mission of 1743, of which de la Condamine was a member, lost their cinchona plants when a wave took them off their ship. The [[Dutch Empire|Dutch]] sent [[Justus Carl Hasskarl|Justus Hasskarl]], who brought plants that were then cultivated in Java from 1854. English explorer Clements Markham went to collect plants that were introduced in [[Sri Lanka]] and the Nilgiris of southern India in 1860.<ref name="mysore">{{cite book |last=Rice |first=Benjamin Lewis |title=Mysore: A Gazetteer Compiled for Government Vol. 1 |year=1897 |publisher=Westminster: A Constable |pages=892 |url=https://archive.org/stream/mysoregazetteerc01rice#page/n199/mode/2up/ }}</ref> The main species introduced were ''[[Cinchona succirubra|C. succirubra]]'', or red bark, (now ''C. pubescens'') as its sap turned red on contact with air, and ''[[Cinchona calisaya]]''. The alkaloids quinine and cinchonine were extracted by [[Pierre Joseph Pelletier]] and [[Joseph Bienaimé Caventou]] in 1820. Two more key alkaloids, quinidine and cinchonidine, were later identified and it became a routine in quinology to examine the contents of these components in assays. The yields of quinine in the cultivated trees were low and time was needed to develop sustainable methods to extract bark.

In the meantime, [[Charles Ledger]] and his native assistant [[Manuel Incra Mamani]] collected another species from Bolivia. Mamani was caught and beaten by Bolivian officials, leading to his death, but Ledger obtained seeds containing high levels of quinine. These seeds were offered to the British, who were uninterested, leading to the rest being sold to the Dutch. The Dutch saw their value and multiplied the stock. The species later named ''[[Cinchona calisaya|Cinchona ledgeriana]]''<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1095-8339.1885.tb00567.x|title=Remarks on ''Cinchona ledgeriana'' as a Species|journal=Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Botany|volume=21|issue=136|pages=374–380|year=1885|last1=Holmes|first1=Edward Morell|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1433049}}</ref> yielded 8 to 13% quinine in bark grown in Dutch Indonesia, which effectively outcompeted the British Indian production which focused on a range of alkaloids other than quinine.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Roersch van der Hoogte |first1=Arjo |last2=Pieters |first2=Toine |title=Science in the service of colonial agro-industrialism: The case of cinchona cultivation in the Dutch and British East Indies, 1852–1900 |journal=Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences |date=2014 |volume=47 |pages=12–22 |doi=10.1016/j.shpsc.2014.05.019|pmid=24981994 }}</ref> Only later did the English see the value and sought to obtain the seeds of ''C. ledgeriana'' from the Dutch.<ref>{{cite journal | journal=Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine|year=1943| author=Russell, Paul F.| title=Malaria and its influence on world health|pages=599–630|volume=19| issue=9| pmid=19312337| pmc=1934033}}</ref><ref name="Williams-1962">{{Cite journal|last=Williams|first=Donovan|date=1962|title=Clements Robert Markham and the Introduction of the Cinchona Tree into British India, 1861|jstor=1792039|journal=The Geographical Journal|volume=128|issue=4|pages=431–442|doi=10.2307/1792039|bibcode=1962GeogJ.128..431W }}</ref>

[[Francesco Torti]] used the response of fevers to treatment with ''Cinchona'' as a system of classification of fevers or a means for diagnosis between malarial and non-malarial fevers. Its use in the effective treatment of malaria brought an end to treatment by [[bloodletting]] and long-held ideas of [[humorism]] from [[Galen]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Quinine's predecessor: Francesco Torti and the early history of cinchona|author=Jarcho, Saul|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|year=1993|place=Baltimore}}</ref> <!-- For his part in obtaining and helping the establishment of ''Cinchona'' species in British India, --> Clements Markham was knighted for his role in establishing ''Cinchona'' species in Indonesia. Hasskarl was knighted with the Dutch order of the Lion.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Roth|first1=Klaus|last2=Streller|first2=Sabine|title=From Pharmacy to the Pub — A Bark Conquers the World: Part 1 |journal=ChemViews|language=en|doi=10.1002/chemv.201300056|year=2013|doi-access=}}</ref>