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STUDY OF MALARIA (e-commerce project) We know malaria is a common disease in many countries including Pakistan. We will go through the history of disease to know how biology solved the biological problem concering the cause and transmission of malaria. In ancient times (more than 2000 years ago),physicians were familiar with malaria. They described it as a disease of chills and fevers with recurring attacks. They also observed that the disease was more common among people living in low, marshy areas. It was thought that the stagnant water of marshes poisoned the air and as a result of breathing in this “bad air”, people got malaria. This belief led to the name of this disease. The Italian words “mala” means bad and “aria” means air. For further clarification of the observation, some volunteers drtank stagnant water from the marshes. They did not develop malaria. In the 17th centuary when the New World (America) was discovered, many plants from America were sent back to Europe to be used as medicines. The bark of tree known as quina-quina was very suitable for curing fevers. It was so beneficial that soon it was impossible to carry enough bark to Europe. Some dishonest merchants began to substitute the bark of another tree, cinchona which closely resembled quina-quina. This dishonesty proved much valuable for mankind. Cinchona bark was found to be excellent for treating malaria. We now know the reason: cinchona bark contains quinine that is effective in treating the disease