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  • 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

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

The healing power of the physic garden

Having experienced the healing power of plants and gardens, Iona Glen goes in search of present-day “physic gardens” and their origins in history.

  • Article

How Indigenous insight inspires sustainable science

The forest of the Amazon Basin is inextricably bound up with the lives of the Indigenous peoples living there. Find out how they feel about the forest, use what it provides, and try to protect it from aggressive commercial exploitation.

All stories (4)

Images

  • LABEL: Orange Quinine Wine. Prepared accord
  • Handbill: advertisement for the Quinine Tonic Cup.
  • Malaria and quinine.
  • Quinine plant from medicinal plants by Robert Bentley, 1880.
  • Soldiers and quinine
  • Quinine researchers of the 19th century: I. Process print after A. Tschirch.
  • Showcard advertising Merital quinine compound tablets.
  • Quinine-Urea-Hydrochloride as a local anaesthetic and as a dressing for infected wounds.
  • Quinine-Urea-Hydrochloride as a local anaesthetic and as a dressing for infected wounds.
  • Quinine-Urea-Hydrochloride as a local anaesthetic and as a dressing for infected wounds.
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