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Ecuador: The Cinchona Tree and the Cure for Malaria

Ecuador: The Cinchona Tree and the Cure for Malaria

Episode 149 Published 1 month, 1 week ago
Description

Why did the cloud forests of Ecuador produce the only cure for a disease that killed popes, hollowed out armies, and blocked European expansion into the tropics — and what did the people whose knowledge made that cure possible pay for sharing it? Who was Manuel Incra Mamani, the man whose botanical expertise created the Dutch quinine monopoly, whose name is on nothing, and who was beaten to death for his trouble? And what does any of this have to do with the gin and tonic?

Join John and Patrick as they tell the story of cinchona bark — the Jesuit smugglers, the Andean monopoly, the pharmaceutical arms race, and the chemical precondition for the European partition of Africa...

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In Sponsorship with Cornell University: Dyson Cornell SC Johnson College of Business

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