Quechua people Quinine, which is found naturally in bark of cinchona tree, is known to be used by Quechuas people for malaria-like symptoms. When chewed, coca acts as a mild stimulant and suppresses hunger, thirst, pain, and fatigue; it is also used to alleviate altitude sickness. Coca leaves are the raw material from which cocaine, one of Peru's most historically important exports, is chemically extracted. Many indigenous women wear the colorful traditional costume, complete with bowler style hat. The hat has been worn by Quechua and Aymara women since the 1920s, when it was brought to the country by British railway workers.
History of pharmacy in the United States number of programs in the history of medicine, history of pharmacy programs remain few in number in the United States. As soon as Columbus started his explorations of the Americas in the late 15th century, a European effort to find valuable medicinal plants among the flora of the New World to add to the medical canon got underway. Early New World medicines uncovered included guaiacum from the West Indies (for coughs, rheumatism and a wide variety of other uses), sassafras from Florida, copaiba from Brazil, Peru balsam and, most famously, cinchona bark from Peru, also called "Jesuit's bark" in honor