Wellcome uses cookies.

Read our policy
Wellcome Collection homepage
All
Stories
Images
Catalogue
Events

Stories

  • In pictures

The cinchona tree, malaria and colonisation

Ever since the discovery of cinchona bark as a treatment for malaria in 17th-century South America, the cinchona tree has accompanied European colonisation around the world. Kim Walker tracks the human and ecological impact of this global commodity.

  • Article

Unravelling genetic origins from the potato to cinchona

Starting with the humble potato, Nataly Allasi Canales reveals how researchers unearth the genetic origins of modern plant varieties, and explains why their work is so important for biodiversity.

  • Article

Hunting lost plants in botanical collections

A bark specimen at Kew recalls the story of a South American man who harvested the most potent source of the only effective malaria treatment available in the late 1800s. Killed for his work and forgotten by history, Manuel Mamani was a victim of the colonial juggernaut.

  • Article

Indian botanicals and heritage wars

Colonial botanical texts, as astonishingly beautiful as they are, may cast very dark shadows.

All stories (7)

Images

  • Salix Latifolia Rotunda, Cinchona
  • Cinchona plant (Cinchona officinalis): flowering stem and floral segments. Coloured lithograph after M. A. Burnett, c. 1842.
  • Cinchona plant (Cinchona caribbaea): flowering and fruiting branch. Coloured etching by J. Pass, c. 1801, after J. Ihle.
  • Cinchona plant (Cinchona officinalis): flowering and fruiting branch. Coloured etching by J. Pass, c. 1801, after J. Ihle.
  • Cinchona plant (Cinchona officinalis): flowering and fruiting branch. Coloured etching by J. Pass, c. 1801, after J. Ihle.
  • Second illustration, published in Europe, of a Cinchona tree
  • Episodes in the history of cinchona 2: the countess of Chinchón takes cinchona. Oil painting.
  • Episodes in the history of cinchona 2: the countess of Chinchón takes cinchona. Oil painting.
  • Episodes in the history of cinchona 2: the countess of Chinchón takes cinchona. Oil painting.
  • Episodes in the history of cinchona 2: the countess of Chinchn̤ takes cinchona. Oil painting by a Roman painter.
All images (49)

Catalogue

All works (755)