Word: cinchona
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...breakthrough represents a new stage in the ancient battle against malaria and the insect that carries it, the female Anopheles mosquito. Peruvian Indians discovered the first important weapon: the bark of the Cinchona tree. For centuries the bark and its derivative, quinine, were the only means of preventing and treating malaria's waves of fever, which can recur erratically and weaken victims for years. Gin and tonic, originally made with quinine, is said to have been developed by British colonialists as a way of making their daily doses more palatable...