With the isolation of quinine from Cinchona in 1820, an ancient herbal cure was transformed
into a chemical drug. This was the inspiration for a new scientific discipline–
ethnopharmacology–as Western scientists began to reinvent traditional herbal cures by
extracting their active principles to make new and profitable drugs. The Chinese government
may claim many such success stories as their own, but such triumphant narratives only
reveal part of the story. The drawn-out hunt for the active principle of another anti-malarial …