Cinchona and its Product--Quinine

Cinchona and its products - Quinine Cinchona bark produces various alkaloids. The most important alkaloid quinine has certain thermal properties. Since the 1630's, quinine has been used to fight against malaria. Of 38 kinds of cincona, 4 kinds have economic value to produce quinine. Karasaya, C. Legeriana, C. Officianalis and C. succirubra. Ciachona belongs to the family Rubiaceae and is the native of Andes of South America. It will prosper on steep slopes of fertile volcanic soil with annual precipitation of 1,500 cm. (9) Cinconas flowers within 3 years.

The first effective treatment of malaria comes from the bark of the cinchona tree including quinine. This tree grows mainly on the slope of the Andes Mountains in Peru. The indigenous peoples of Peru made cinchona to suppress heat. It discovered its effectiveness against malaria and the Jesuits introduced treatment to Europe around 1640; by 1677, it was included in the London Pharmacopoeia as antimalarial therapy. It was not until 1820 that the active ingredient quinine was extracted from the bark and separated and named by French chemists Pierre Joseph Pelletier and Joseph Bienaimé Caventou.

The Dutch initially led Cinchona to commercial success. They set up afforestation sites in Java colonies and ultimately dominated quinine production in the world. Trees were successfully introduced to the islands by private producers, the Dutch government and scientists in the 1950s and 1860s. By further introducing Cinchona ledgeriana species including quinine, Java further strengthened efforts towards global production. In the late 1880s, due to Cinchona 's overproduction and price decline, British producers were forced to switch to other crops in India. Producers in the Netherlands respond to this overproduction by further increasing the harvest and relying on Cinchona ledgeriana with a high quinine content.

Until 1913, Cinchona's production was a permanent low price. Part of that is partly due to the market operation of the European quinine producer association, overproduction of crops. These organizations manage the industrial process of extracting quinine from Cincona trees and artificially keep the price of finished quinine in a high value while adjusting the efforts to keep the price of Shark's bark low. After all, these practices caused the Dutch government and Java producers to take action. In 1913, the so-called quinine contract was concluded, the price of Shincona bark was decided, the world's first medicinal cartel was born.

Cinchona tree bark contains many alkaloids such as cinchonine, cinchonidine, quinidine, quinine. The two most widely used medicines are quinine. And it is used to treat malaria and quinidine. Unlike quinine, quinidine is a class I antiarrhythmic drug and means fighting cardiac rhythm disorder by reducing electrical stimulation of cardiomyocytes. Do this by blocking the sodium pump on the cell membrane. However, quinine is thought to be an antimalarial and skeletal muscle relaxant. It fights malaria by destroying the DNA replication capacity of parasites and its metabolism. Interestingly, it is effective against chloroquine anti-malarial cases