"And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year were very frequent in the land—but not so much so with fevers, because of the excellent qualities of the many plants and roots which God had prepared to remove the cause of diseases, to which men were subject by the nature of the climate." (Alma 46:40)
The only natural cure for the serious type of fever, we call malaria, is quinine, made from the natural plant, Chinchona, and was found not only indigenous to the Andes area of Peru, but was the only place in the world this plant grew until the 20th-Century.
First discovered by Europeans soon after the Conquest, it was known by the Quechua Indians who made it known to the Spaniards, having been used as a cure for fevers for centuries, dating back into B.C. times. Even today, the only practical source of natural quinine comes from the bark of these trees.
However, under wartime pressure, research towards its artificial production was undertaken. A formal chemical synthesis was accomplished in 1944 by American chemists R.B. Woodward and W.E. Doering. Since then, several more efficient quinine total syntheses have been achieved, but none can compete in economic terms with isolation of the alkaloid from natural sources. Thus, the bark of trees in this genus is the source of a variety of effective alkaloids, the most familiar of which is quinine. Not only was this of extreme importance to the Nephites and subsequent indigenous Peruvians, but also to modern Europeans since the current history dates back more than 300 years and has greatly influenced that of pharmacy, botany, medicine, trade, theoretical and practical chemistry, and tropical agriculture.
In 1650, the physician Sebastiano Bado declared that this bark had proved more precious to mankind than all the gold and silver that the Spaniards had obtained from South America, and the world confirmed his opinion. Ramazzini said that the introduction of Peruvian bark would be of the same importance to medicine that the discovery of gunpowder was to the art of war, an opinion endorsed by contemporary writers on the history of medicine.
I've heard about this before, but never in such detail and understanding. What a validation for the BOM. I also bought your book--wow 800 pages, but amazing. You have answered with great understanding the many items in the BOM that others have missed. What a great read. As soon as I finish it, I'm going to move on to the next book. I can't wait to find out about the Jaredites. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post on quinine and the herbs provided to fight fevers.
ReplyDeleteI am amazed how many things in Peru match the book of mormon. All anyone talks about in mesoamerica is where towns were supposedly located, which is difficult to verify given the little amount of information regarding this in the scriptures.
ReplyDeletethe only problem with this is that malaria was not present in the americas before african slave ships reached them. we know this because tribes in south america would have been using quinine to cure malaria if it was there, but instead they are suffering because of malaria. don't you think that the native people of south america would have a cure to every disease they knew about, not all but 1.
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