The quest for quinine: those who won the battles and those who won the war

For a long time, the synthesis of quinine constituted an elusive target. In 2004, which marked the 60th anniversary of the publication of the approach used by Woodward and Doering to synthesize quinine, two new stereocontrolled total syntheses of the natural product were accomplished. Together with the well-publicized first stereocontrolled total synthesis of quinine by Stork in 2001, these publications evidence the revival of interest of organic chemists in the synthesis of this compound, once considered a miracle drug. The recently disclosed syntheses of quinine also testify in a remarkable manner the huge progress made by organic synthesis during the last three decades since the first series of partially controlled syntheses of quinine by the group of Uskokovic. Following an account of the historical importance of quinine as an antimalarial drug and a brief description of the experiments which contributed to its isolation and structural elucidation, the first reconstructions of quinine and the total syntheses of the natural product are discussed.