From Quinaquina to ‘Quinine Law’: A Bitter Chapter in the Westernisation of Turkish Medicine
Öz
Medical theory and therapeutics prevailing in the Ottoman Empire until the 19th century were founded in medieval Islamic medicine. From fifteenth century onwards, however, new treatment modalities and drugs were introduced from West, either by European physicians practicing in Ottoman lands and/or through translations of European medical books. Trade was another vehicle of dissemination. The cinchona bark or quinaquina of South American origin proved to be an effective drug for treating fevers, and was among these “European” (efrenci) remedies. The earliest work introducing quinaquina (kınakına in Turkish) and promoting its use was a treatise compiled by Ali Münshi (d. 1734), a Turkish court physician. Cinchona bark, however, should have reached the Islamic world well before Ali Munshi’s description. Besides conventional antipyretic procedures such as purgatives/laxatives and cooling drinks, Ali Munshi administered cinchona powder to his patients. Apparently, Thomas Sydenham’s and Adrien Helvetius’s treatments of fevers by quinaquina were known to him.
solated from cinchona bark in 1820 by P.J.Pelletier and J.B.Caventou,
quinine became to be widely used in Europe against intermittent fevers including malaria, in the 19th century. Quinine sulphate – popularised as
“solfato” – was included among the pharmaceuticals to be used in Ottoman
military hospitals in 1831, if not earlier. The Ottoman Military Pharmacopoeia
dated 1844 described the preparation of quinine sulphate from cinchona bark
and gave its posology. Quinaquina and quinine sulphate employed in the
military and sold in the drugstores were imported from Europe. In midnineteenth century, quite a number of apothecaries would sell counterfeited
quinine sulphate, as well. By the end of the century, the list of pharmaceuticals
that should be kept in Ottoman drugstores counted about twenty-six quinine
compounds and pharmaceutical forms of quinaquina. Allegations of impurities
and adulteration in quinine compounds were exacerbated by commercial
competition, and necessitated for the arbitration of the Imperial Medical
Council. Quinine became widely available and its indications specified
following its large scale, yet monopolistic, production in South-East Asia, and
the elucidation of malaria parasitology. During World War I, German
physicians serving under the Ottoman command undertook clinical research in
Southern Anatolia/Asia Minor where malaria was endemic. A “Quinine Law”
issued in 1917 enforced control over the quality and distribution of the
substance, and established the priority of the drug which symbolised the
evolution of traditional Turkish medicine at the turn of the 18th century, and
signified the emergence of modern medical treatment with pharmaceuticals at
the close of the 19th century, heralding the westernisation of Turkish medicine.
Anahtar Kelimeler
Kaynakça
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Ayrıntılar
Birincil Dil
İngilizce
Konular
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Bölüm
Araştırma Makalesi
Yayımlanma Tarihi
1 Haziran 2013
Gönderilme Tarihi
4 Şubat 2014
Kabul Tarihi
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Yayımlandığı Sayı
Yıl 2013 Cilt: 14 Sayı: 2