CfP: Medicinal Plants, Empires and the Industrialization of Drug Production
Matti Leprêtre (EHESS/Sciences Po Paris)
The investigation into the appropriation of indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants has become a focal point for historians and anthropologists in past decades.[1] Contrasting with triumphant narratives on the development of “modern science,” recent works have repositioned the history of knowledge within an economic and social context that acknowledges the asymmetric power relations between the West and the colonized worlds. However, most studies on colonial botany have concentrated on the early modern and modern period. The fate of bioprospection in the post-1880 era—a pivotal period marked by the industrialization of drug production[2]—remains underexplored. This oversight might stem from the long-held belief that the years following 1880 marked a shift in Western history from plant-based to synthetic drugs—a perspective only recently questioned,[3] yet without a corresponding reevaluation of how medicinal plants were appropriated thereafter.[4]
In contrast, environmental history has increasingly focused on the repercussions of industrialization for the “unequal ecological exchange” between Europe and its colonies.[5] The inquiry into how the “extractive peripheries”[6] of the West contributed to its economic ascent has emerged as a pivotal question in environmental history, intersecting with the history of commodities.[7] Nevertheless, the historiography on medicinal plants has scarcely benefitted from these scholarly advances, again with rare exceptions.[8]
The aim of this collective issue is to explore the specific effects of the industrialization of drug production on the colonial appropriation of medicinal plants. The following topics represent a non-exhaustive list of potential areas of inquiry:
- How does the scaling up of drug production, entailed by industrialization, transform the structure of global medicinal plant production? This issue is deeply intertwined with the process of colonial expansion. A facet of this inquiry involves analyzing the pharmaceutical industry’s connection to the plantation economy. However, attempts at domesticating wild plants often failed; thus, it is crucial to consider the non-scalability[9] of certain plants’ production, for which the harvesting of wild specimens remained essential.
- The agricultural labor regimes that facilitate or hinder the profitability of medicinal plant gathering and cultivation are a critical aspect of this discussion. Labor has become a focal point in both colonial and environmental histories.[10] The transition from agrarian to industrial economies resulted in the near disappearance of the cultivation and harvesting of medicinal herbs in Western Europe. This led to an increased reliance on parts of the world where agrarian economies or specific labor regimes, such as forced labor, persisted. The historical consequences of agricultural modernizations[11] on medicinal plant production warrant thorough examination.
- The role of pharmaceutical companies in bioprospecting for new plants and organizing their cultivation and harvesting in colonies warrants, more broadly, close scrutiny. The pivotal role of company agents as “go-betweens”[12] becomes even more pronounced within the framework of informal imperialism. Furthermore, unlike the period before the industrialization of drug production, the appropriation of indigenous remedies by European scientists now has significant implications only if the plants in question can be utilized in industrial drug production. Reflecting recent scholarship that calls for an integrated approach to the history of science and industrial and business history,[13] this collective issue will give special consideration to the synergy between scientific expeditions in the colonies and the research agendas of pharmaceutical companies, including the journey from the initial “discovery” of a plant to its transformation into a mass-produced pharmaceutical.
- From this perspective, firms associated with the movements in favor of alternative medicines must be an integral part of the investigation. Actors such as Madaus or Schwabe indeed positioned themselves as alternatives to the dominant pharmaceutical industry, while they themselves were engaged in processes of industrializing the production of their remedies.[14] Even though plants native to Germany were often preferred, other plants from more distant lands were an integral part of the preparation of essential oils and other tinctures. Therefore, the relationship between alternative firms and colonialism must be explored.
- Lastly, this issue could explore the ramifications of the “molecular vision of life”[15] as championed by pharmaceutical companies, which emphasizes isolating alkaloids from plants. Pratik Chakrabarti has suggested that the alkaloid paradigm assumes an endless interchangeability among medicinal plants.[16] Yet, given the unique presence of some alkaloids in specific plant families, challenges in plant acclimatization remain. The extent to which this novel epistemological approach to plants has altered the ecology of global medicinal plant production warrants thorough investigation. An examination of how the methods of substitution associated with the alkaloid paradigm diverge from substitution practices in the modern and early modern periods could provide a significant axis of reflection.[17]
Details: Abstracts (approximately 500 words) should be sent to matti.l...@gmail.com before September 15th.
Selected bibliography:
Ábrán, Ágota. 2022. “From Weeds to Commodities. The Translation of Plants into Medicines in Early Twentieth-Century Transylvania.” In A New Ecological Order: Development and the Transformation of Nature in Eastern Europe, edited by Stefan Dorondel and Stelu Serban, 89–108. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Anagnostou, Sabine, Florike Egmond, and Christoph Friedrich, eds. 2011. A Passion for Plants. Materia medica and botany in scientific networks from the 16th to 18th centuries. Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte der Pharmazie 95. Stuttgart: Wissenschaftliche Verlagsanstalt mbH.
Andrews, Thomas G. 2014. “Work, Nature, and History. A Single Question, That Once Moved like Light.” In The Oxford Handbook of Environmental History, edited by Andrew C. Isenberg, 425–66. Oxford Handbooks. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bil, Geoff, and Jaipreet Virdi. 2022. “Special Issue Introduction: Colonial Histories of Plant-Based Pharmaceuticals.” History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals 63 (2): 134–48..
Blais, Hélène. 2023. L’empire de la nature : Une histoire des jardins botaniques coloniaux. Ceyzérieu: Éditions Champ Vallon.
Bonah, Christian, and Anne Rasmussen, eds. 2005. Histoire et médicament aux XIXe et XXe siècles. Société, histoire et médecine. Paris: Biotem & Éditions Glyphe.
Bonnemain, Bruno. 2008. “Colonisation et pharmacie (1830-1962) : une présence diversifiée de 130 ans des pharmaciens français.” Revue d’Histoire de la Pharmacie 95 (359): 311–34.
Bonneuil, Christophe, and Jean-Baptiste Fressoz. 2020. “Capitalocène : une histoire conjointe du système terre et des systèmes-monde.” In Transformations agricoles et agroalimentaires : Entre écologie et capitalisme, edited by Gilles Allaire and Benoit Daviron, 41–58. Synthèses. Versailles: Éditions Quæ.
Boumediene, Samir. 2016. La Colonisation Du Savoir : Une Histoire Des Plantes Médicinales Du Nouveau Monde (1492-1750). Vaulx-en-Velin: Les Éditions des mondes à faire.
Boumediene, Samir, and Valentina Pugliano. 2019. “La route des succédanés. Les remèdes exotiques, l’innovation médicale et le marché des substituts au XVIe siècle.” Revue d’histoire moderne contemporaine n° 66-3 (3): 24–54.
Bourget, Marie-Noëlle, and Christophe Bonneuil. 1999. “Présentation [De l’inventaire du monde à la mise en valeur du globe. Botanique et colonisation (fin 17e siècle-début 20e siècle)].” Outre-Mers. Revue d’histoire 86 (322): 7–38.
Chakrabarti, Pratik. 2010. Materials and Medicine: Trade, Conquest, and Therapeutics in the Eighteenth Century. Studies in Imperialism. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Daheur, Jawad. 2017. “La sylviculture allemande et ses « hectares fantômes » au tournant des XIXe et XXe siècles.” Revue forestière française 69 (3): 227–39.
———. 2022. “Extractive Peripheries in Europe: Quest for Resources and Changing Environments (Fifteenth-Twentieth Centuries) - Introduction.” Global Environment 15 (1): 7–31.
Elsner, Gine. 2010. Heilkräuter, “Volksernährung”, Menschenversuche: Ernst Günther Schenck (1904-1998): Eine deutsche Arztkarriere. Hamburg: VSA Verlag.
Engel, Alexander. 2020. “Die Globalität von Gütern und ihre Ökonomien, 1450–1900.” In Die Globalität von Gütern und ihre Ökonomien, 1450–1900, 115–36. Berlin: De Gruyter Oldenbourg.
Flitner, Michael. 1995. Sammler, Räuber und Gelehrte: Die politischen Interessen an pflanzengenetischen Ressourcen, 1895-1995. Frankfurt a.M.; New York: Campus Verlag.
Fredj, Claire. 2019. “Pour l’officine et pour l’usine. La France et le commerce du quinquina au XIXe siècle.” Revue d’histoire moderne & contemporaine 66–3 (3): 103–27.
Friedrich, Christoph, and Wolf Dieter Müller-Jahncke. 2005. Geschichte der Pharmazie II: Von der Frühen Neuzeit bis zur Gegenwart. Vol. 2. 2 vols. Eschborn: Avoxa - Mediengruppe Deutscher Apotheker GmbH.
Gänger, Stefanie. 2020. A Singular Remedy: Cinchona Across the Atlantic World, 1751–1820. Science in History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gaudillière, Jean-Paul. 2013. “Biologics in the Colonies: Emile Perrot, Kola Nuts and the Industrial Reordering of Pharmacy.” In Biologics, A History of Agents Made From Living Organisms in the Twentieth Century, edited by Alexander von Schwerin, Bettina Wahrig, and Heiko Stoff, 47–64. Pickering & Chatto.
———. 2013. “Professional and Industrial Drug Regulation in France and Germany: The Trajectories of Plant Extracts.” In Ways of Regulating Drugs in the 19th and 20th Centuries, edited by Jean-Paul Gaudillière and Volker Hess: 66–96. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
———. 2015. “Une Manière Industrielle de Savoir.” In Histoire Des Sciences et Des Savoirs, edited by Christophe Bonneuil and Dominique Pestre, 3:85–105. Paris: Seuil.
Gißibl, Bernhard. 2016. The Nature of German Imperialism: Conservation and the Politics of Wildlife in Colonial East Africa. The Environment in History: International Perspectives. New York: Berghahn Books.
Grimmer-Solem, Erik. 2019. Learning Empire: Globalization and the German Quest for World Status, 1875-1919. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Heim, Susanne, ed. 2002. Autarkie und Ostexpansion: Pflanzenzucht und Agrarforschung im Nationalsozialismus. Geschichte der Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft im Nationalsozialismus, Band 2. Göttingen: Wallstein.
Hokkanen, Markku. 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.
Hornborg, Alf. 2014. “Ecological Economics, Marxism, and Technological Progress: Some Explorations of the Conceptual Foundations of Theories of Ecologically Unequal Exchange.” Ecological Economics 105 (September): 11–18.
Jütte, Robert. 1996. Geschichte der alternativen Medizin: von der Volksmedizin zu den unkonventionellen Therapien von heute. München, C.H. Beck.
Kay, Lily E. 1993. The Molecular Vision of Life: Caltech, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Rise of the New Biology. Nex York; Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lyautey, Margot, Christophe Bonneuil, and Léna Humbert, eds. 2021. Histoire Des Modernisations Agricoles Au XXe Siècle. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes.
Meyer, Ulrich and Christoph Friedrich, eds., 2016. 150 Jahre Dr. Willmar Schwabe: 1866-2016, Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe Verlag.
Oestermann, Tristan. 2022. Kautschuk und Arbeit in Kamerun unter deutscher Kolonialherrschaft 1880-1913. Industrielle Welt 102. Köln: Böhlau-Verlag GmbH u Cie.
Osterhammel, Jürgen. 1986. “Semi-Colonialism and Informal Empire in Twentieth-Century China: Towards a Framework of Analysis.” In Imperialism and After: Continuities and Discontinuities, edited by Wolfgang J. Mommsen and Jürgen Osterhammel, 290–314. London: Allen & Unwin for the German Historical Institute.
Pomeranz, Kenneth. 2000. The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Schaffer, Simon, Kapil Raj, Lissa Robert, and James Delbourgo, eds. 2009. The Brokered World: Go-Betweens and Global Intelligence, 1770-1820. Sagamore Beach: Science History Publications.
Schenk, Gunther. 2009. Heilpflanzenkunde Im Nationalsozialismus: Stand, Entwicklung Und Einordnung Im Rahmen Der Neuen Deutschen Heilkunde. DWV-Schriften Zur Geschichte Des Nationalsozialismus 7. Baden-Baden: Deutscher Wissenschafts-Verlag.
Schiebinger, Londa. 2004. Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Schiebinger, Londa, and Claudia Swann, eds. 2005. Colonial Botany: Science, Commerce, and Politics in the Early Modern World. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Schön, André. 2017. Vom Pfeilgift zur Arznei. Untersuchungen von Arzneidrogen und Giften aus den ehemaligen deutschen Kolonien West- und Südwestafrikas, vornehmlich an Berliner Instituten (1884–1918). Ein Beitrag zur Kolonialpharmazie. Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte der Pharmazie 113. Stuttgart: Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft.
Simmonds, Monique J. 2022. “Plants and Medicine.” In A Cultural History of Plants in the Nineteenth Century, edited by Annette Giesecke and David Mabberley. Vol. 5. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
[1] See, e.g., Flitner 1995; Bourget and Bonneuil 1999; Schiebinger 2004; Schiebinger and Swann 2005; Chakrabarti 2010; Anagnostou, Egmond and Friedrich 2011; Boumediene 2016; Gänger 2020.
[2] Friedrich and Müller-Jahncke 2005; Bonah and Rasmussen 2005.
[3] Von Schwerin, Stoff, and Wahrig 2013; Simmonds 2022.
[4] There are several exceptions, e.g., Bonnemain 2008; Hokkanen 2012; Gaudillière 2013; Schön 2017; Fredj 2019; Bil and Virdi 2022.
[5] Hornborg 2014; Bonneuil and Fressoz 2020.
[6] Daheur 2022.
[7] Pomeranz 2000; Daheur 2017; Engel 2020.
[8] Ábrán 2022.
[9] Tsing 2015; Tsing, Mathews, and Bubandt 2019.
[10] Andrews 2014; Oestermann 2022.
[11] Lyautey, Bonneuil, and Humbert 2021.
[12] Schaffer et al. 2009; Todzi 2023.
[13] Vogel 2008; Gaudillière 2015.
[14] Jütte 1996; Gaudillière 2013; Meyer 2016.
[15] Kay 1993.
[16] Chakrabarti 2010.
[17] Boumediene and Pugliano 2019.
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