was often shipped directly to America. Over time, additional personnel were recruited to assist with the Colombian mission. This included Earl Lemley Core, William Brooks Drew, Joseph Andorfer Ewan, Norman Carter Fassett, and Harold St. John. Ecuador In 1943, an expedition to Ecuador was put together by the American Quinine Company, led by anthropologist Froelich Rainey. Surveying was difficult, however, since the cinchona forests of Ecuador were often remote and inaccessible. Surveying parties ranged between ten and fifteen men, many of whom served as porters and trail cutters. By mid-1943, Ecuador was the second largest producer of cinchona bark in Latin America. Personnel involved with the Ecuadorian missions included Wendell Holmes Camp, William Brooks Drew, Francis Marion Ownbey, Frederick Wilson Popenoe, Gerald Webber Prescott, Misael Acosta Solís, William Campbell Steere, Julian Alfred Steyermark, and Ira Loren Wiggins. Plantation development The American pharmaceutical company Merck and Co. planned to develop the cinchona industry in the Western hemisphere as early as 1932. Their research was backed by the US Department of State, US Department of Agriculture, the , and the United Fruit Company. Small experimental plantations were established in Guatemala and Costa Rica during the 1930s. After the outbreak of the war, the US government seized a plantation at El Porvenir, Guatemala and turned it into the world's largest cinchona nursery. Here, large scale research was conducted on propagation and harvesting techniques. Seedlings were distributed to other nearby countries, and further plantations were established in Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Peru. Older plantations that existed before US involvement in Peru and Bolivia were also exploited. End of the program In 1944, quinine was successfully synthesized by American chemists Robert Burns Woodward and William von Eggers Doering. This, along with the recovery of Asian plantations and a healthy stockpile of antimalarial products in US control, led to the termination of the program. Overall, the US had imported approximately 40 million pounds of dry bark over the course of two years. The program ceased operations on November 30, 1945. References Forestry in South America