Since its discovery in the 17th century, the bark of the Andean cinchona tree and its chemical constituents, known as quinoline alkaloids provided the only treatment for malaria for over 300 years. In 1934, scientists developed the first synthetic antimalarial, later known as chloroquine (CQ). In recent years this antimalarial drug has proven to be an effective antiviral medication, treating fevers and chills among other symptoms of both diseases. Today, a less toxic version of chloroquine, known as hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is being used to treat and prevent COVID-19.
In August 22, 2005 the Virology Journal (the official publication of the National Institutes of Health) published an article titled “Chloroquine is a potent inhibitor of SARS coronavirus infection and spread.” The researchers noted, “We report…that chloroquine has strong antiviral effects on SARS-CoV infection of primate cells. These inhibitory effects are observed when the cells are treated with the drug either before or after exposure to the virus, suggesting both prophylactic and therapeutic advantage.”1
As an herbalist, I wanted to understand more about this tree bark with its rich history of healing and create an extract for my own experimental use. Included is a photo of the extract in progress along with some history on the Cinchona tree.
Important: do not self-administer any herbs without consulting with your medical practitioner. This information is to be used for educational purposes only and has been solely based on the historic and traditional use of herbs. It is not intended for the use of diagnosing any disease or condition or prescribing any treatment whatsoever. This information has not been evaluated by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Cinchona
cin·cho·na (sin-kō’nă)
Latin name: Cinchona pubescens, Cinchona officinalis
Common Names: Peruvian bark, quinine, Jesuit’s bark, fever tree, kinakina, quina-quina, quinine bark tree.
Family: Rubiaceae
Part used: Bark
Habitat: the native range of cinchona species are the lower to mid-elevations of the Andes in South America. Cinchona is the national tree of both Peru and Ecuador. Cinchona bark is now cultivated throughout the tropics, including regions of Africa.
Description: the cinchona tree is an evergreen, growing to between 50 and 100 feet, cinchona has leaves that are flat and broad, with a shiny green surface and large veins. The flower is white and elongated, covered thickly with silky hairs.
Constituents: there are 38 known species in the genus. At least three of these species (C. officinalis, C. ledgeriana, C. succirubra) have a high enough concentration of quinine alkaloids to be cultivated commercially for their medicinal value. The medicinally active compounds in the bark are mostly alkaloids—more than 20 types. The cultivated bark contains 7-10% of total alkaloids; about 70% is quinine. The active ingredient against malaria, the alkaloid quinine, was isolated in the 1820s, prompting further cultivation of trees, especially C. ledgeriana and C. succirubra. In the 1940s, after the active alkaloid was isolated and identified, drug companies were able to develop synthetic quinine. Some strains of malaria have become resistant to the synthetic quinine which has instigated renewed interest in sourcing natural quinine from cinchona.
In addition to the familiar anti-malarial alkaloid quinine, there is stereoisomer quinidine (used in cardiac medicine), cinchonidine, cinchonine, hydrocinchonidine, quinamine, homocinchonidine, hydroquinine, quinic and cincholannic acids, bitter amorphous glucoside, starch and calcium oxalate.
Properties: analgesic, antiparasite, astringent, bitter, febrifuge
Medicinal History of Cinchona:
Barbara Griggs in her masterful handbook on the history and evolution of Western herbalism writes about a most remarkable remedy that was used by the natives for fever, chills and malaria, (the leading killer disease of the seventeenth century that was endemic throughout Europe and Asia). This discovery, made by a missionary in Peru in 1633, came from the cinnamon-colored bark of the “Fever tree” that was ground into a powder and given as a beverage. The miraculous results were mostly ignored until a Jesuit brought some to Rome where its fame spread around Europe and became known as “Jesuit’s bark.” By 1746, this bark was among the most heavily stocked items in a doctor’s inventory. Today, this remarkable remedy is known as Peruvian bark or Cinchona, and contains the active ingredient quinine.2
Quinine is the source of the bitter taste in tonic water. The mixed drink gin and tonic originated in British colonial India when the British population would mix their medicinal quinine tonic with gin to make it more palatable.
Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), a German physician and founder of Homeopathy, concluded through his research that the same substance that in large doses produces the symptoms of an illness, in very minute does cures it. As part of his research, Hahnemann dosed himself with cinchona regularly for several days resulting in an intermittent fever, which subsided when he stopped taking the drug. This confirmed what Hahnemann had previously found in Greek medical writings, that “like cures like.” From his personal research, Hahnemann concluded that cinchona worked because it created an artificial illness in the body similar to malaria, which stimulated the body’s own defense mechanism—the vis medicatrix naturae (the healing power of nature) central to Hippocratic medicine. Hahnemann, with a chosen band of pupils from the Leipzig University where he was a professor, experimented by dosing with drugs and making detailed notes whereby creating a collection of about ninety-nine remedies based on this old-new therapy that Hahnemann coined as Similis similibus curentur (let like be cured by like). (Griggs 1987). This Law of Similars was also the theoretical basis for the vaccines of physicians Edward Jenner, Jonas Salk and Louis Pasteur to bolster natural immunity. With Homeopathy, the more a substance is diluted, the higher its potency and the greater the protection against toxicity.3
French chemists J.B. Caventou and P.J. Pelletier isolated the alkaloid quinine from the cinchona bark in 1820. and in 1944 American scientists synthesized quinine in the laboratory. From this came various quinine-based drugs, such as chloroquine and primaquine, for the treatment of malaria. People around the world still use the natural bark in herbal remedies.
Safety and Side Effects of Cinchona Bark:
The alkaloids contained in cinchona bark are powerful drugs and should not be taken without consulting a medical doctor. The more powerful the medicine the more likely there will be harmful side effects. Tonic water, which contains a much lower concentration of quinine than what is recommended for malaria treatment, is considered safe.
Current research on the antiviral use of HCQ:
Support for hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), the less toxic derivative of chloroquine, to treat COVID-19 continues to grow at an exponential rate worldwide. Physicians across the United States are using HCQ either alone or in combination with azithromycin to successfully treat COVID-19 patients.
Consider, for instance, the overwhelmingly positive patient outcomes that have been achieved by Dr. Vladmire Zelenko, a New York physician. In a letter dated March 23, 2020, Dr. Zelenko reported to the Israel Ministry of Health that he and his team had used a combination of HCQ, azithromycin, and zinc to successfully treat 500 high-risk COVID-19 patients. He reported “ZERO deaths, ZERO hospitalizations, and ZERO intubations [ventilator uses]” and “no serious negative side effects” caused by the drug protocol.4, 5
Clinical trials in China, South Korea, and France demonstrated the efficacy of treating and likely preventing COVID-19 infections with HCQ alone or in combination with azithromycin.
Researchers in France and Vietnam under the leadership of world-renowned infectious disease expert Professor Didier Raoult, the head of the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire (IHU) Méditerranée Infection in Marseille, have reported another clinical trial in which that drug combination cured 79 out of 80 patients. Noting that “adverse events were rare and minor,” the researchers summarized their findings as follows: In conclusion, we confirm the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine associated with azithromycin in the treatment of COVID-19 and its potential effectiveness in the early impairment of contagiousness. Given the urgent therapeutic need to manage this disease with effective and safe drugs and given the negligible cost of both hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, we believe that other teams should urgently evaluate this therapeutic strategy both to avoid the spread of the disease and to treat patients before severe irreversible respiratory complications take hold.
India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued a directive declaring that whereas the Central Government is satisfied that the drug ‘Hydroxychloroquine’ is essential to meet the requirements of emergency arising due to pandemic COVID-19 and in the public interest, it is necessary and expedient to regulate and restrict the sale and distribution of the drug.
Similarly, Belgium and Bahrain are reporting that their hospitals are using HCQ to successfully treat COVID-19 patients. According to the Bahrain News Agency, the head of Bahrain’s National Taskforce for Combatting COVID-19 reports that HCQ has had a “profound impact” when used to treat COVID-19 patients. And Belgium has established a “strategic reserve” of HCQ to treat as many as 22,000 COVID-19 patients on an “off-label” basis.6
In an article titled “Early treatment of COVID-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin: A retrospective analysis of 1061 cases in Marseille, France” researchers concluded that “the administration of the HCQ+AZ combination before COVID-19 complications occur is safe and associated with a very low fatality rate in patients.”7
There is also “anecdotal evidence” that lupus patients who are being treated with HCQ have an almost nonexistent incidence of COVID-19 infections, as do people living in Africa where HCQ tablets are handed out regularly to prevent malaria. And the use of this inexpensive medication continues with astounding results.
References:
1Vincent, Martin J., Bergeron, Eric, Benjannet, Suzanne, Erickson, Robbie R., Rollin, Pierre E., Ksiazek, Thomas G., Seidah, Nabil G. and Nichol, Stuart T. (2005). Chloroquine is a potent inhibitor of SARS coronavirus infection and spread. NIH Virology Journal, 2:69. doi: 10.1186/1743-422X-2-69. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1232869/
2Griggs, Barbara.1987. Green pharmacy: A History and Evolution of Western Herbal Medicine. Rochester, VT: Healing Arts Press.
3Trivieri, Larry and Anderson, John W. 2002. Alternative Medicine, The Definitive Guide. New York, NY: InnoVision Health Media, Inc.
4Zelenko, Vladimir. (2020, March 30). A Report on Successful Treatment of Coronavirus. Retrieved from: https://www.globalresearch.ca/report-successful-treatment-coronavirus/5708056
5Parry, George. (2020, March 31). The $20 Solution to Coronavirus: ‘Anecdotal Evidence’ Is a Life-Saver. Retrieved from: https://spectator.org/the-20-solution-to-coronavirus-anecdotal-evidence-is-a-life-saver/
6Fisher, Bryan. (2020, April 27). Fauci knew about HCQ in 2005—nobody needed to die. Retrieved from
7Million M, Lagier J-C, Gautret P, Colson P, Fournier P-E, Amrane S, Hocquart M, Mailhe M, Esteves-Vieira V, Doudier B, Aubry C, Correard F, Giraud-Gatineau A, Roussel Y, Berenger C, Cassir N, Seng P, Zandotti C, Dhiver C, Ravaux I, Tomei C, Eldin C, Tissot-Dupont H, Honoré S, Stein A, Jacquier A, Deharo J-C, Chabrière E, Levasseur A, Fenollar F, Rolain J-M, Obadia Y, Brouqui P, Drancourt M, La Scola B, Parola P, Raoult D.(2020). Early treatment of COVID-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin: A retrospective analysis of 1061 cases in Marseille, France. National Institute of Health, doi: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2020.101738. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7199729/
Additional Research:
Yao X, Ye F, Zhang M, et al. In vitro antiviral activity and projection of optimized dosing design of Hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Clin Infect Dis. 2020 doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa237.
Liu J, Cao R, Xu M, et al. Hydroxychloroquine, a less toxic derivative of chloroquine, is effective in inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro. Cell Discov. 2020;6:16. doi: 10.1038/s41421-020-0156-0.
Chen Z, Hu J, Zhang Z, et al. Efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in patients with COVID-19: results of a randomized clinical trial. MedRxiv. 2020;03(22):20040758.
Geleris J, Sun Y, Platt J, et al. Observational study of hydroxychloroquine in hospitalized patients with Covid-19 [published online ahead of print, 2020 May 7] N Engl J Med. 2020 doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2012410.5. Gautret P, Lagier JC, Parola P, et al. Clinical and microbiological effect of a combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin in 80 COVID-19 patients with at least a six-day follow up: a pilot observational study. Travel Med Infect Dis. 2020 doi: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2020.101663.
Sturluson, Thordur. Cinchona Bark Uses and Benefits. Retrieved from https://www.herbal-supplement-resource.com/cinchona-bark.html
Gachelin, G; Garner, P; Ferroni, E; Tröhler, U and Chalmers, I. (2017). Evaluating Cinchona bark and quinine for treating and preventing malaria. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 110(1), 31-40. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5298425/
Sandra Casciato June 22, 2020 WholisticTransformation.net
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