Changes of Cinchona distribution over the past two centuries in the northern Andes

The Cinchona genus is important for humanity due to its ethnobotanical properties, and in particular its ability to prevent and treat malaria. However, there have been historical changes of Cinchona distribution in the tropical Andes that remain undocumented. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, several explorers recorded Cinchona precise localities in present-day Colombia and Ecuador, countries which harbour about half of the species of the genus, including C. officinalis. We compare historical and twentieth-century records to evaluate whether elevational ranges, mean elevation and latitude varied between the two periods. A large expansion of 662.5 m in average elevation for Cinchona and 792.5 m in elevational range for C. officinalis was found. These findings have implications for the conservation of economically important species and help us understand the impacts of the Anthropocene over time.

Legacies of boldness: Caldas, Humboldt and knowledge about cinchonas, 1801-1821

This article examines the circulation of knowledge about Cinchona plants. Francisco José de Caldas and Alexander von Humboldt were interested in their taxonomy, distribution, trade, exploitation, production and conservation. The former's observations were better, but his contributions were silenced by Humboldt and other actors such as José Celestino Mutis. Caldas changed from a passive position of accepted subordination to one of self-advocacy, but his arguments were not widely publicized, in part because his results did not favor commercial interests and he lacked connections. Caldas used similar techniques to Humboldt to appropriate and systematize knowledge about cinchonas, silencing various sources.

Inhibition halos in the remediation of Amazon soils contaminated with petroleum

We analyze the history of bioremediation of soils contaminated with petroleum in the Ecuadorian Amazon from 1994 to 2014. Although there were some technoscientific "successes," we argue that the opportunity to develop a process of scientific excellence was thwarted by lack of an institutional framework and the political will to oversee research and innovation. Dependence on foreign technology, insufficient internal coordination among research programs and institutions, corruption, lack of a national tradition of biotechnological innovation, the predominance of "biopeons," and a dichotomy between oil and the environment all influenced this process. We discuss these issues in relation to science and technology on the periphery and examine what is needed to consolidate technoscientific processes of excellence in those territories.

The Cinchona Program (1940-1945): science and imperialism in the exploitation of a medicinal plant

During World War II, the United States implemented programs to exploit hundreds of raw materials in Latin America, many of them botanical. This required the participation of the country's scientific community and marked the beginning of intervention in Latin American countries characterized by the active participation of the United States in negotiations (and not only by private firms supported by the United States). Many federal institutions and companies were created, others were adapted, and universities, research centers and pharmaceutical companies were contracted. The programs undertaken by this coalition of institutions served to build and consolidate the dependence of Latin American countries on United States technology, to focus their economies on the extraction and development of resources that the United States could not obtain at home (known as "complementary") and to impede the development of competition. Latin American republics had been historically dependant on raw material exports (minerals and plants). But during World War II their dependence on U.S. loans, markets, science and technology reached record levels. One example of this can be appreciated through a careful examination of the Cinchona Program, implemented in the 1940s by US agencies in Latin America. This program for the extraction of a single medicinal plant, apart from representing a new model of scientific imperialism (subsequently renamed "scientific cooperation") was the most intensive and extensive scientific exploration of a single medicinal plant in the history of mankind.