LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Quinine
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Quinine is excellent at reducing fevers and so it became the first and only, until the synthesis of other drugs, anti-malarial drug brought to Europe by the Jesuits. However these new synthesised drugs were preferred to the bark of the cinchona tree. New drugs included Chloroquine and Mefloquine (Larium). Mefloquine caused serious side effects and the parasite started to gain resistance to these drugs.
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Quinine is commonly associated with heroin in illicit drug preparations. Hence, a positive quinine test is often taken as an indication that drugs were used. If morphine is present, this assumption is reasonable. If both drugs are absent, the assumption is less valid. but not unreasonable. Quinine... may be present in medications and in tonic water, the most common source of non-drug related quinine.
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Quinine ... played a significant role in the colonization of Africa by Europeans. As the dawn of modern pharmacology, Quinine was the prime reason why Africa ceased to be the white man's grave. According to Clifford D. Conner in "A People's History of Science", "It was quinine's efficacy that gave colonist fresh opportunities to swarm into the Gold Coast, Nigeria and other parts of west Africa and seize fertile agricultural lands, introduce new livestock and crops, build roads and railways, drive natives into mines, and introduce all the disruptions to traditional lifestyles that cash economies brought."(Conner pp 95-96) also cites Porter, "The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, pp. 465-466)
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Quinine, a cinchona alkaloid, acts primarily as a blood schizonticide. Its antimalarial action is unclear. It was once believed to be due to the intercalation of the quinoline moiety into the DNA of the parasite, thereby reducing the effectiveness of DNA to act as a template, as well as depression of the oxygen uptake and carbohydrate metabolism of plasmodia. More recently it is thought that pH elevation in intracellular organelles of the parasites by quinine plays a role in the mechanism.
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Quinine may cause blurred vision or a change in color vision. Make sure you know how you react to this medicine before you drive, use machines, or do anything else that could be dangerous if you are not able to see well. If these reactions are especially bothersome, check with your doctor.
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Quinine can cause fetal harm when administered to pregnant women. Stillbirths, in which there was no obvious cause for the fetal deaths, have been reported in mothers receiving quinine. Quinine has caused congenital malformations in humans when used in large doses (up to 30 g) for attempted abortion. Deafness related to auditory nerve hypoplasia was reported in about half of these cases; limb anomalies, visceral defects, and visual changes have ... been reported.
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Quinine