CfP: Medicinal Plants, Empires and the Industrialization of Drug Production

The investigation into the appropriation of indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants has become a focal point for historians and anthropologists in past decades. 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—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, yet without a corresponding reevaluation of how medicinal plants were appropriated thereafter.

In contrast, environmental history has increasingly focused on the repercussions of industrialization for the “unequal ecological exchange” between Europe and its colonies. The inquiry into how the “extractive peripheries” of the West contributed to its economic ascent has emerged as a pivotal question in environmental history, intersecting with the history of commodities. Nevertheless, the historiography on medicinal plants has scarcely benefitted from these scholarly advances, again with rare exceptions.

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 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. 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 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” 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, 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. 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” 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. 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.

Details: Abstracts (approximately 500 words) should be sent to Matti Leprêtre before September 15th.