As early as when the names of various plants such as tomatoes, corn, and peanuts appeared, Zhang Shou concluded that Emperor Taizu's fleet had indeed reached America. As for whether this predecessor really died in a foreign land, or returned quietly to his country and then died somewhere quietly, or simply died at sea, he could not be sure.
After all, as for the part about the secret conversation between Lao Xianyu and Monk Zanghai that was overheard by Liu, it can only be said that they were entrusted by someone to go out to sea, but they did not really find the whereabouts of Emperor Taizu.
However, when he heard the word "Cinchona Frost", he could not help but be stunned. Cinchona Frost... Isn't it quinine? Although it was once a special medicine for malaria, when it was introduced to the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Kangxi treated it like a treasure and only gave it to his most trusted ministers, but the original technology for extracting quinine was extremely backward, and the most primitive method was even to dry the bark and grind it into powder...
Of course, chemical extraction was finally realized later, and by the 20th century, quinine had been successfully synthesized. But with the invention of various new drugs, especially artemisinin, this ineffective drug has basically withdrawn from the stage of treating malaria, and is only used to treat a small number of malignant malaria. Lao Xianyu just emphasized that malignant malaria was probably what the prophet said.
Seeing that Lao Xianyu was looking at him solemnly as if he was offering a treasure, Zhang Shou wanted to say that instead of going thousands of miles to introduce the not-so-effective cinchona cream, it would be better to try artemisinin extract. However, after thinking it over, he decided not to discourage others and asked out of curiosity, "Oh, it can cure malaria? How is it? Tell me?"
After listening to the story of Lao Xianyu who was infected with malaria at sea, and then met a dying "prophet" on the shore and got a "miracle medicine", he said with a smile: "Is there such a hidden story in the story you told me before? You didn't tell me before, but now you are willing to tell me?"
"Dr. Zhang, you took such a big risk. I really feel bad for you. Besides, we tried taking quinine cream before. It has good medicinal properties, but it is also very risky. Besides, I haven't even grown cotton yet. I'm not sure if I can grow this thing, so I didn't dare to say anything before."
Old Salted Fish was extremely thick-skinned, so he didn't care about Zhang Shou's mere teasing. There wasn't even a trace of embarrassment on his smiling face. "Besides, I'm a small person like me, timid and afraid of trouble. It's better to have less trouble than more. If I didn't really appreciate your kindness, I really wouldn't dare to take out this kind of thing with only medicine and seeds. Really, although this medicine is effective, the medicinal properties are too strong..."
"Okay, okay!" Zhang Shou finally stopped Lao Xianyu's endless introduction, thinking to himself, how effective is quinine? Don't I know how effective it is
Originally, cinchona frost, or quinine, was not effective in treating all malaria. In this day and age, the extraction method was backward and the purity was likely to be insufficient. Just like the extraction of artemisinin, he had read some information that said that the purity of the extraction would vary depending on the region where artemisia annua was grown, and the efficacy would also vary, not to mention quinine.
To be honest, the value of the cinchona tree is far greater than that of the natural rubber tree.