"Imperial Networks, Colonial Bioprospecting and Burroughs Wellcome & Co.: The Case of Strophanthus Kombe from Malawi (1859-1915)"
Hokkanen, M. (2012). "Imperial Networks, Colonial Bioprospecting and Burroughs Wellcome & Co.: The Case of Strophanthus Kombe from Malawi (1859-1915)". Social History of Medicine, 25(3), 589-607. https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/hkr167
Published in
Social History of MedicineDate
2012Copyright
© The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for the Social History of Medicine.
Recent research has begun to highlight the complex connections between
colonialism, medical and scientific knowledge-production, and commercial
interests. This article analyses colonial ‘bioprospecting’ through a case study
of Strophanthus kombe. Used locally as an arrow poison, Strophanthus was
‘discovered’ in Malawi during David Livingstone’s Zambesi expedition. After
investigation and experimentation it was subsequently used to produce a
cardiac drug. The Malawian case study complements previous work on
Strophanthus from West Africa. It uncovers the early Scottish-Central African
networks that linked the Shire valley, (the source of Malawian kombe seeds)
with medical research in Edinburgh and Burroughs Wellcome and Co., the
first commercial manufacturer of drugs derived from Strophanthus. The article
also analyses Burroughs Wellcome’s use of scientific and local knowledge in
the early marketing of its first original drugs.
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