Quinoline Alkaloids
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Quinoline is a double carbon ring containing one nitro-gen atom. Quinoline alkaloids include quinine from the bark of Cinchona ledgeriana, a South American tree in the coffee family (Rubiaceae). The alkaloid quinine is toxic to Plasmodium vivax and three additional species, the one-celled organisms (protozoans) that cause malaria.
QUINOLINE ALKALOIDS
Quinoline is a double carbon ring containing one nitro-gen
atom. Quinoline alkaloids include quinine from the bark of Cinchona ledgeriana, a South American tree in the coffee family
(Rubiaceae). The alkaloid quinine is toxic to Plasmodium vivax and three additional species, the one-celled
organisms (protozoans) that cause malaria. The microorganisms invade red blood
cells where they multiply, eventually escaping from the ruptured cells. The
disease is characterized by spells of fever and chills, associated with the
simultaneous rupture of red blood cells. Malaria is certainly one of the most
widespread diseases throughout tropical regions of the world, and it is
transmitted through the bite (blood meal) of the female Anopheles mosquito.
During the 1600s, Spanish Jesuits in Lima, Peru learned that bark extracts from
a local tree called ‘quina’ (C.
officinalis) could cure malaria. They successfully used this extract on
Countess Chinchona. Some strains of Plasmodium are resistant to many of the
synthetic quinine analogues, so natural: quinine is still used to this day.
