Zhu Youzhen is no stranger to malaria.

This disease, which has ravaged Europe and Asia for thousands of years, has had a huge impact on human life even in later generations.

Otherwise, Tu Youyou would not have won the Nobel Prize for artemisinin.

This disease is an infectious disease caused by the malaria parasite, and the infected person usually goes through an incubation period, a chill period, a fever period, and a sweating period until death.

Because of this, this disease is also called pendulum, that is, it is very cold at the beginning and then very hot, even if it is cold and a few quilts are covered in the hot weather, it is useless to fall into the ice cellar when it is hot.

And now that Zhu Youzhen heard that Bi Maokang was starting to have a fever, his heart naturally sank.

This shows that even if Xu Wenjue brought a famous doctor in time, he still couldn't prevent the deterioration of Bi Maokang's condition.

Zhu Youzhen followed Xu Wenjue to Bi Maokang.

I saw Bi Maokang lying on the rattan chair with a flushed face, and shouted weakly: "Grandpa Guo, why did you let Your Majesty come, let him leave quickly, this disease has been passed on, and your Majesty has contracted the disease, which is my Bi Maokang's sin!" ”

"Your Majesty, please forgive the old minister for being rude, please go back."

Bi Maokang nodded groggily at Zhu Youzhen. 、

Wang Chengen was also frightened when he heard this, he was also afraid that the illness would reach his majesty, so he hurriedly persuaded: "Your Majesty, if we still go back, if you have anything to say, let other people pass it on." ”

"What are you afraid of, although this malaria is contagious, it is only transmitted through mosquito bites, and it is not plague, how can there be mosquito bites in this winter."

Zhu Youzhen walked up to Bi Maokang as he spoke: "Bi Aiqing don't worry, although this malaria is ferocious, it is not incurable, I will find a way for you, you should recuperate first, Daming still needs you." ”

Zhu Youzhen saw that Bi Maokang was so weak, and it was not good to talk to him more, so he ordered Xu Wenjue to take care of him and then came to the main hall of the Wei Mansion to rest.

The Duke of Wei is the title of Xu Da, the first general of the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

Since Zhu Youzhen came to the Wei State Mansion, he naturally wanted to pay homage to Xu Da, and only after putting on the three pillars of incense did he sit down and instructed Xu Wenjue again: "Do you have Westerners' glass bottles in your house?" ”

"Yes, I wonder what Your Majesty wants to do with this thing?" Xu Wenjue asked.

"Pharmaceutical!"

Zhu Youzhen said again: "I have heard for a long time that you have blindly been good at alchemy after inheriting the position of the prince of the country, ignoring the military and political affairs of Nanjing, especially after Liu Kongzhao, the sincere uncle, took over the Caojiang Water Army, and even found a few foreigners to refine the pill together, and now I also want you to refine a medicine to cure Bi Maokang's illness." ”

Xu Wenjue touched his head: "Weichen doesn't dare to deceive Your Majesty, Weichen's refined elixir only works when he is having fun in the room, Weichen is a young man, he has lost his body, and now he has to rely on these things to replenish his yang energy, so he has been looking for a good medicine that can show his strength again, if you need it, Your Majesty, Weichen can offer a few good medicines hidden by Weichen, but Bi Gong is so weak now, but he can't play with it." ”

"Ridiculous!"

Zhu Youzhen slapped the table.

"You are also the first prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't think about the country, but I study these all day long, no matter what, I don't have time to teach you a lesson for the King of Zhongshan and the queen of my ancestors, since you like to study this way, you can't just blindly make medicine for boudoir fun, although this Bi Gong's disease is terrible, but as long as you make a medicine called cinchona, you can cure his disease, and sell it to cure the gentry and people who are guilty of the same disease, so that you can make money and benefit the people, isn't it worth it than you exercise on a woman's stomach for a while!"

Zhu Youzhen knew that the most famous anti-malarial drugs were cinchona cream and artemisinin in later generations.

Although artemisinin is extracted from Artemisia annua, the extraction difficulty is higher than that of cinchona, and the application of artemisinin is the latest biotechnology in the 21st century.

The effect of simple Artemisia annua is not obvious, and the alkaloids of artemisinin are still very different from the plants of Artemisia annua in nature.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen could only choose to let Xu Wenjue develop cinchona.

Cinchona cream was a cure for malaria before artemisinin appeared.

The reason why artemisinin was banned from cinchona cream in later generations is because cinchona cream has been used as an antimalarial drug for a long time, so that many malaria parasites have developed resistance to cinchona cream.

As a result, malaria in later generations was not affected by cinchona cream.

In Daming, alkaloids have not yet been extracted as medicine, so cinchona cream can have a radical effect on malaria in this era.

Compared with the extraction of artemisinin, the extraction difficulty of cinchona cream is not high, only need to crush and mix with alkali lime, and then add petroleum ether solvent extraction, and then extract with dilute sulfuric acid, and then concentrate crystallization to obtain cinchona sulfate cream.

Soda lime and dilute sulfuric acid are not difficult, and they can be diluted directly by someone in Daming.

Petroleum ether is the only organic solvent that needs to be distilled from petroleum.

But there are also solutions.

After all, in China, the ancients, especially many alchemists, still knew about oil.

Shen Kuo's "Dream Creek Writings" mentions oil.

Zhu Youzhen believed that Xu Wenjue could also find this thing, and then distilled it with a glass instrument to obtain petroleum ether.

To obtain petroleum ether by petroleum distillation, petroleum ether is obtained by temperature manipulation according to the different boiling points of various organic substances of petroleum.

The boiling point of petroleum ether is 30 to 100 degrees Celsius, which is almost the time when water is about to boil.

Of course, in the end, can you succeed in getting cinchona cream, a miracle drug for malaria?

Zhu Youzhen did not dare to have full guarantees.

However, anyway, Bi Maokang's disease will eventually die because of the destruction of body functions by the malaria parasite.

Zhu Youzhen felt that it was better to take advantage of this time to give it a try, maybe he could really develop a medicine called cinchona cream, reduce the non-war mortality rate of the Ming population, and thus more stabilize and win the hearts of the people.

It also saved the life of a scientist.

After all, in this era, many people always like to associate natural disasters with the virtues of their own kings and the virtues of officials.

The legitimacy of the imperial court was sometimes associated with these plagues.

In addition, Zhu Youzhen felt that instead of letting Xu Wenjue spend the family business accumulated in his Wei Mansion for hundreds of years on making aphrodisiacs, it was better to let him do something serious and make some contributions to Daming's drug research.

Xu Wenjue, the Duke of Wei, didn't know what kind of medicine Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen said about cinchona cream, and he hadn't even heard of it.

But after Zhu Youzhen said this, Xu Wenjue also knew that there was a big business opportunity here, so he hurriedly patted his chest:

"Please rest assured that Your Majesty will definitely live up to Your Majesty's expectations and develop Chonchona as soon as possible."

"It's a good thing to have confidence, if this thing is done well, I will let your Xu family exclusively operate the production and sales of cinchona, but I will have to account for 60% of the profits, which can be regarded as a technology share," Zhu Youzhen said.

Xu Wenjue didn't know what technology shareholdings were, but he didn't dare to go against Zhu Youzhen's will, so he could only agree, of course, he also knew that if this medicine really had a radical cure for malaria as His Majesty said, the profits would be more profitable than selling thousand-year-old ginseng.

Of course, even if he loses, Xu Wenjue doesn't care, his Xu family has a big business, and it is common for him to spend 10,000 gold to develop pills and fail, but now he is just a loser again, anyway, it is to please His Majesty the Emperor, why not.