Emergence of drug development after Dalton's atomic theory

Professor Tom Ban just contributed a useful short essay on the background of neuropsychopharmacology, with some details that embellish what I've described in relation to Woods' first use of a syringe to inject morphine for pain relief and the emergence of drug development from the aniline dye industries.

Ban, 2017

For more on John Dalton, this 43 minute podcast is instructive: In Our Time

In Our Time

More from BBC:

Dyes

Why would someone like Perkin want to synthesize quinine?

Why do the people of Peru jealously guard their supply of quinoa?

From: Fred Skeberg, 2017:  https://medium.com/@matgalen/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-gin-and-tonic-82bde029b269

"What is Quinine

The story is that Spanish colonists discovered that the bark from the Quinquina tree in Peru could be used to treat Malaria. This likely happened in the early 1600’s. In Europe this ground bitter bark became known as Fever Tree bark or Jesuit’s powder. It is believed that the discovery and usage of the bark was one of the reasons why European countries managed to colonize the tropics.

The most active ingredient in the bark is quinine. In 1817 a couple of French scientists discovered a way to extract the quinine from the bark and from then on pure quinine powder became available to prevent the Malaria. It was this powder that was prescribed to the British officers which they created the first Tonic water with.

In the beginning most bark for quinine came from its original country of Peru. But seeds was smuggled out in 1860 and was sold to the Dutch government. They set up big plantations in Java, Indonesia where they could have full control of the market. During World War II the Japanese occupied Java which lead to a shortage in quinine. To prevent this from being a future problem trees was planted in Africa and synthetic quinine was developed.

Both the planting in Africa and the creation of synthetic quinine turned out successful and now there are quinine exported from Africa as well as synthetic quinine."