Legados de la audacia: Caldas, Humboldt y el conocimiento sobre las quinas, 1801-1821

Abstract

Resumen El artículo reflexiona sobre la circulación de conocimiento en torno a las plantas de quina. Francisco José de Caldas y Alexander von Humboldt se interesaron por su taxonomía, distribución, comercio, explotación, producción y conservación. Las observaciones del primero fueron mejores, pero sus aportes fueron silenciados por el segundo y por otros actores como José Celestino Mutis. Caldas cambió desde una posición pasiva y de aceptada subalternidad, hasta una de reclamo, pero sus argumentos no tuvieron mayor difusión, en parte porque sus resultados no favorecían intereses comerciales y carecía de redes. Caldas usó dispositivos similares a los de Humboldt para apropiar y sistematizar conocimientos sobre las quinas, silenciando a varias fuentes.

Current and Future Spatial Distribution of the Genus Cinchona in Peru: Opportunities for Conservation in the Face of Climate Change

“…"Quina" or "Cascarilla" are the most common names for Cinchona plants whose bark has medicinal properties. Each species has different concentrations of alkaloids [4] and may vary according to locality, altitude, soil type, age of the tree and time of harvest [1,5]. Therefore, the species of the Cinchona genus have been used as an effective medicine against malaria in the 17th century [6] since they possess a component called "quinine" [6].…”

Changes of Cinchona distribution over the past two centuries in the northern Andes

“…In 1821 Humboldt stated the lower range was as low as 200 toesas, closer to Caldas' observations, although he reported one species at an altitude of 1500 m [ 59 ]. However, Humboldt never included Caldas’ observations in his essay [ 2 ]. Humboldt & Bonpland Cinchona historical sources (electronic supplementary material, appendix, dataset S4) were used to create a dataset.…”

“…Historic documents can help us understand socio-environmental processes over long periods of time [ 1 , 2 ]. However, the use of old maps and archives to investigate plant taxa in tropical regions, such as Cinchona L. (Rubiaceae–Cinchoneae), is limited [ 3 ].…”

“…Bonpland kept field notes and provided herbarium collections [ 48 ] and included information on the genus in various publications [ 49 – 51 ]. Humboldt also published specific articles on the genus [ 41 , 42 ], although they contained several taxonomic mistakes already pointed out at that time by Caldas [ 2 ].…”

“…Open Sci. 10: 230229 published specific articles on the genus [41,42], although they contained several taxonomic mistakes already pointed out at that time by Caldas [2].…”