In 1914, in the former Portuguese colony of Goa, India, the physician António Joaquim Vás announced the discovery of a wonderful treatment for smallpox, entailing clinical application of seeds from the bananeira brava (Heliconia biahi Sw.m.), a plant remedy allegedly derived from Indian medical practices. The present article explores the circumstances surrounding the successes and failures of this discovery. The concept of scientific translation is used to interpret the transformation of bananeira bravaseeds into an early twentieth-century remedy for smallpox. This transfer from indigenous use to scientific therapeutics constitutes the creation of a quasi-medicine, that is, a case of 'medium translation'. Although these seeds occupy a problematic place within the program of scientific translation, they enjoyed active circulation within science and remained a part of medical practices for combating smallpox.
scientific translation; smallpox; medicinal plants; Goa; India; nineteenth/twentieth centuries; history and sociology of medicine
