Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-11-04
WHERE QylNlNE is RAlS-O.
Java Has Supplanted South America
Methods of Manufacture.

BdNh mas FupplunTeo South
Methods of Manufacture.
The one staple drug that is now
used the world over is quinine.
Wherever there is fever or malaria
there natures antidote stands ready
to relieve the sufferer. From Patago-
mia to Alaska and from Ceylon to ST.
IBERIA the prescription used oftenest
is the white powder that is the prod
uct of the cinchona tree. The dis
covery of quinine by the Spaniards
in South America is an old story, but
it is not generally known that the
worlds present supply of quinine
comes from the island of Java where
the cinchona tree is not indigenous,
but was introduced only after many
failures and with infinite toll and pa
tience on the part of the Dutch gov
ernment
Fifty years ago a Dutchman named
Hasskarl was sent to South America
to obtain slips and seeds of the qui-
nine tree. After many adventures and
two years of wandering near the head
waters of the Amazon, Hasskarl re-
turned to Java with 16 saplings. They
were planted and fourished remarka-
bly, WELL but when the bark was first
taken, five years later, great was the
disappointment to find that Hasskarl
had been duped, and that the saplings
were not cinchonas at ALL
Another attempt was made a few
years later, when an English mer-
chant, a Mr.. Ledger, sold to the Dutch
planters some cinchona seed he had
obtained in Bolivia. Twenty thousand
trees grew from Ledger's seed, and
many of them are still standing.
The quinine forests are planted in
clearings in the jungle and are kept
as free from weeds as flower garden
in this country. When a tree is six
years old it is cut down and new
slip planted alongside of its roots, so
that the qunine supply is never di-
minished. The bark is stripped from
the trunk by Javanese women. They
cut it into short lengths and dry it,
first in the sun and later in ovens. The
dried bark is then put through crude
mill, which cuts it into small bits.
These are shipped in bags to Amster-
dam or Bandoeng. the centre of the
quinine industry Of Java.
At the factory the bark is mixed
with an alkaloid and ground again.
1t is then pumped into immense tanks
filled with hot crude petroleum, which
dissolves the alkaloid from the bark
The oil in turn is washed out with
sulphuric acid to remove the alkaloid,
and the crude quinine crystalizes when
it is cooled The crystals are then
placed in trays to dry. In 100-pound
cans the finished quinine is now ready
for the market.
The cutting down of the cinchona
tree is the distinctive feature of Dutch
quinine culture. The old South Amer
lean method was to peel the bark and
then wait four or five years until it
grew on again. But this process
proved too slow for cinchona gather
ers, and during the last decade thous-
ands of trees have been cut down
without any new ones being planted
in their places. AS a result, the ac-
cessible quinine forests of South
America are greatly depleted and COM
paratively little of the general sup
ply comes from the part of the world
where it was discovered.
Qulnine Of an inferior quality comes
from Ceylon, and the British govern
ment supplies it's army and navy hos
pitfalls from plantations of It's own in
the Himalaya mountains.