History of Medicine

Today (April 25) is World Malaria Day, so I figured it would be apt to write about the disease which is related to my recent posts on artemisinin and quinine, and also has a strong connection to the ancient times.  Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease that is widespread in tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world. It causes flu-like symptoms including fever, headache and vomiting, and can be fatal if untreated. Every year, there are over 200 million cases and around 500,000 deaths, 95% of which are in Africa. Malaria was also responsible for several epidemics in the Americas in the 1700 and 1800s, until it was discovered that mosquitos carried the disease and anti-mosquito measures were widely utilized. Malaria pathogen attached to red blood cell Not only is malaria one of the most common diseases in the world, it is also one of the oldest. References to malaria are found in practically all ancient medical texts, including from the Classical period. In fact, it is thought that the d

Long before artemisinin was discovered as an effective anti-malarial agent (in the 1970s), there was another natural anti-malarial remedy that was widely used. Quinine, made from the bark of a tree holds great importance in medicine and has a fascinating history.  In the 1800s, European settlers in South America discovered that the bark of a native Peruvian tree called cinchona tree was widely used by locals to ward off mosquitos and it served as an effective anti-malarial remedy. The active ingredient, quinine, was soon isolated from the cinchona bark, and it became the mainstay of anti-malaria treatment for hundreds of years all over the world (and continues even today in certain countries).  Cinchona tree Although the discovery of quinine was a landmark for western medicine, it also had horrendous consequences, especially for the people of Africa. The fear of malaria and other diseases had kept colonial powers out of Africa for centuries, but the effectiveness of quinine against mal

The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was won by a Chinese scientist, Tu Youyou, for her discovery of anti-malarial drug, artemisinin in the 1970s. Artemisinin is derived from the flowering plant  Artemisia annua (or sweet wormwood).  Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are now standard treatment for malaria worldwide, and several drugs containing artemisinin such as Artesunate are now widely available.  Artemisia plant While it was heralded as a pathbreaking discovery in the 1970's, it turns out it wasn't entirely a new discovery. In fact, it had been known to mankind thousands of years ago, and has a very interesting journey from ancient to modern medicine. Several thousand years ago, ancient Chinese doctors prescribed tea made from a flowering plant called Qing Hao (modern name: artemisia) for fever and inflammation. Like many other traditional medicines, it was lost in historical texts. That is until the Vietnam War started. The Viêt-Cong soldiers fighti