Produtos naturais e antimaláricos: a cooperação científica entre Brasil e China na década de 1980

Abstract

On the 25th of March, 1982, an agreement was signed between Brazil and China to promote scientific and technological cooperation between the two countries. This agreement was consistent with trends initiated in the 1970s by China to rebuild its international political standing and to promote ties with the West. This presentation addresses an outcome of this agreement; specifically, the actions and repercussions of research in natural products and antimalarial medicine by Fundacao Oswaldo Cruz (Brazil) and groups of Chinese scientists in the 1980s. Primary source materials such as travel reports, minutes of meetings, and exchanges of letters between researchers, as well as interviews with key personnel are used to understand the nature of the relationships between the scientists of the two countries and the proposals and initiatives that developed from these interactions. Particular attention is focused on how the scientific partnership of Chinese and Brazilian scientists impacted the development of antimalarial medicine from the Chinese plant called Artemisia annua and its semi-synthetic derivatives, artemeter and artesunato.