The Bark of Barks: A Long-Kept Secret Cure

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According to legend, the first European to be cured of malaria was the countess of Chinchớn, wife of the Spanish viceroy in Peru. As each wave of fever and chills brought her closer to death, the anguished count pleaded with the court physician to save her.

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But in 1638 the doctor’s sole recourse was bloodletting, which only weakened his patient further. As a last resort, he turned to the medicine of the local Indians, who treated fevers with a portion made from the bark of a tree that grew on the eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains.

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The countess survived the malarial attack. According to legend, she took the miracle cure with her when she returned to Europe in the 1640’s. Whether or not the story is true, the 18th century Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus certainly believed it; he named the fever-bark tree for countess, calling it – in slightly misspelled form – cinchona.

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It seems more likely, however, that Spanish Jesuits, not the countess, brought the cinchona to Europe. Jesuit missionaries learned of the fever cure from Peruvian Indians when they founded missions in Latin America in the 16th century. They sent a few samples to Europe and by 1650 were sending the bark there regularly.