Traces the historical search for a cure for malaria, describing the seventeenth-century establishment of pharmacies throughout South America by Jesuit priests, the discover of quinine, the fierce battles that were fought to control and distribute quinine supplies, and the American synthesis of the medicine. 25,000 first printing.

Fiammetta Rocco reckons she owes her life to quinine. Without regular doses of that repulsively bitter stuff, extracted from the bark of the South American cinchona tree, her father would surely have died as a boy in Kenya. Growing up in east Africa, Fiammetta too contracted malaria at 18, in a moment of pill-free carelessness on the mosquito-ridden coast.

Great black and white history photos. "This is a classic" said the volunteer who catalogued the book for our Book Barn.

Pages 348 paperback