The fascinating story of the intensive search to discover and possess quinine-the only known cure for malaria Malaria kills someone every 12 minutes in Africa. Now known mostly as a disease of the tropics, malaria led to the demise of the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago and ravaged Europe for years afterwards. At the start of the 17th century, Jesuit priests developed quinine, an alkaloid made out of the bitter red bark of the cinchona tree from the Andes. When quinine arrived in Europe, the Protestant powers resisted the medicine fearing that it was a Popish poison. Quinine's reputation improved, however, when King Charles II was cured of malaria through its offices. Through the centuries, wars were fought to control the supply-through the building of the Panama Canal and into WWII--until Americans synthesized quinine for the first time in 1944. Rocco describes the ravages of the disease, the search for a cure, and the quest to steal and smuggle cinchona seeds out of South America. The Miraculous Fever Tree deftly illuminates the religious and scientific rivalries, intrepid exploration and colonization evinced by the search for quinine.
Produktkennzeichnungen
ISBN-10
0060959002
ISBN-13
9780060959005
eBay Product ID (ePID)
67807346
Produkt Hauptmerkmale
Verlag
Harper Perennial
Erscheinungsjahr
2004
Anzahl der Seiten
370 Seiten
Sprache
Englisch
Publikationsname
Quinine
Autor
Fiammetta Rocco
Format
Taschenbuch
Zusätzliche Produkteigenschaften
Hörbuch
No
Inhaltsbeschreibung
Paperback
Item Height
2cm
Item Length
20cm
Item Width
13cm
Item Weight
466g
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