Trees against

malaria
Alkaloid concentrations and management of
Cinchona trees in Peru and DR Congo

Hannelore De Schaepmeester 1
Content

• Introduction

• Previous research

• Alkaloid analysis

• Environmental infl uence

• Conclusion

• Discussion

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Malaria vs Cinchona

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Cinchona

• C. pubescens & C. calisaya

• Quinine, quinidine, cinchonine, cinchonidine

• Main alkaloids in the bark
• Natural medicin against malaria

• Peru vs the DR Congo

Watson, L., & Dallwitz, M. (2020, September

20). The families of Flowering Plants. Retrieved
from DELTA: delta-inktey.com 4
What is the problem?

Resistance against expensive, synthetic drugs

Natural alkaloids from Cinchona plantations

Improve production

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Objectives of my thesis

• Identify the environmental factors that infl uence the

alkaloid concentrations in order to optimise the
plantations in the DRC

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 What do we know?

• 2020: Genetic identifi cation (1)

• Mostly C. pubescens in Peru

• C. calisaya in the DR Congo

• 2020: Eff ect of environmental variation on Cinchona

growth (2)

• Canopy cover, elevation, temperature, rainfall

(1) De Pessemier, B. (2020). Molecular phylogeny of Cinchona spp. in Peru and DR Congo. Ghent university. 7
(2) De Ridder, M. (2020). Trees against malaria: effect of environmental variation on Cinchona leaf traits and
bark alkaloid concentrations. Ghent University
Analysis alkaloids

• Extraction and analysis by UHPLC & MS

• Method validation
• Accuracy, precision, specificity, linearity and range

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What’s next?

• Evaluating the distribution of the alkaloids in the samples

• Applying linear-mixed eff ects models on the data to

investigate environmental infl uences

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Distribution of alkaloids

• Diff erent distribution between Cinchona species

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 Distribution of alkaloids

Country Species Quinine Quinidine Cinchonine Cinchonidine

(mg/100g (mg/100g (mg/100g (mg/100g
bark) bark) bark) bark)
Peru C. Pubescens 3 3 472 368

Peru C. 3 6 2604 27

The DRC C. calisaya 4311 297 164 198

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Which environmental infl uences are signifi cant
(p<0,05)?

• Overall LME
(+) temperature (+) precipitation

(-) elevation

 Similar eff ects infl uence the growth

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Which environmental infl uences are
signifi cant (p<0,05)?

• Peruvian LME
(+) temperature (+) canopy cover (+) slope (+) potassium
(-) phosphorus

 Similar effects influence the growth

• Congolese LME
(+) temperature (+) precipitation (+) fertiliser application
(-) elevation (-) fungi (-) other trees

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Objectives of my thesis

• Identify the environmental factors that infl uence the

alkaloid concentrations in order to optimise the
plantations in the DRC

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Conclusion

• Climate, shade and availability of soil nutrients infl uence

the alkaloid concentrations

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Discussion

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