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

The genus is important for humanity due to its ethnobotanical properties, and in particular its ability to prevent and treat malaria. However, there have been historical changes of distribution in the tropical Andes that remain undocumented. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, several explorers recorded precise localities in present-day Colombia and Ecuador, countries which harbour about half of the species of the genus, including .

Legacies of boldness: Caldas, Humboldt and knowledge about cinchonas, 1801-1821.

This article examines the circulation of knowledge about Cinchona plants. Francisco José de Caldas and Alexander von Humboldt were interested in their taxonomy, distribution, trade, exploitation, production and conservation. The former's observations were better, but his contributions were silenced by Humboldt and other actors such as José Celestino Mutis.

Inhibition halos in the remediation of Amazon soils contaminated with petroleum.

We analyze the history of bioremediation of soils contaminated with petroleum in the Ecuadorian Amazon from 1994 to 2014. Although there were some technoscientific "successes," we argue that the opportunity to develop a process of scientific excellence was thwarted by lack of an institutional framework and the political will to oversee research and innovation. Dependence on foreign technology, insufficient internal coordination among research programs and institutions, corruption, lack of a national tradition of biotechnological innovation, the predominance of "biopeons," and a dichotomy between oil and the environment all influenced this process.

The Cinchona Program (1940-1945): science and imperialism in the exploitation of a medicinal plant.

During World War II, the United States implemented programs to exploit hundreds of raw materials in Latin America, many of them botanical. This required the participation of the country's scientific community and marked the beginning of intervention in Latin American countries characterized by the active participation of the United States in negotiations (and not only by private firms supported by the United States). Many federal institutions and companies were created, others were adapted, and universities, research centers and pharmaceutical companies were contracted.