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cinchona

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. | 2011 | Copyright

cinchona or chinchona , name for species of the genus Cinchona, evergreen trees of the madder family native to the Andean highlands from Bolivia to Colombia and also to some mountainous regions of Panama and Costa Rica. The trees are now cultivated elsewhere for "Peruvian bark," the source of quinine . Quinine is still the drug of last resort in the treatment of malaria , but its commercial importance was greatly reduced after the development of synthetic analogs in the 1950s. Several species yield quinine and several other antimalarial alkaloids. The bark of the uprooted tree is beaten loose, peeled by hand, and dried quickly to prevent the loss of alkaloids. Final extraction is conducted in factories.

The trees were named in honor of the countess of Chinchón who, legend says, was cured of a fever in 1638 by a preparation of the bark. Supposedly, at her instigation the bark was collected for malaria sufferers and later exported to Spain. Native peoples, however, had long used it for medicinal purposes and this use was observed by Jesuit missionaries, who brought the bark to Europe. Cinchona is sometimes called Jesuits' bark because of the part the group played in its dispersal. So successful were the Dutch and English in transplanting cinchona to Java and India that until World War II these countries, especially Java, grew practically the entire commercial supply.

Cinchona is classified in the division Magnoliophyta , class division Magnoliopsida, order Rubiales, family Rubiaceae.

Bibliography: See M. L. Duran-Reynals, The Fever Bark Tree (1946); P. E. Thompson and L. M. Werbel, Antimalarial Agents (1972); F. Rocco, The Miraculous Fever-Tree (2003).

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cinchona

The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English | 2009 | Copyright

cin·cho·na / singˈkōnə; sinˈchōnə/ • n. an evergreen South American tree or shrub (genus Cinchona) of the bedstraw family. ∎ (also cinchona bark) the bark of this tree, a source of quinine. ∎ a drug made from this bark.

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cinchona

World Encyclopedia | 2005 | Copyright

cinchona Genus of evergreen trees native to the Andes and grown in South America, Indonesia and Congo. The dried bark of the trees is a source of quinine and other medicinal products. Family Rubiaceae.

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Cinchona

A Dictionary of Plant Sciences | 1998 | | Copyright

Cinchona (family Rubiaceae) A genus of trees, several species of which were formerly widely cultivated for quinine and related drugs, contained in the bark. There are 40 species, native to the Andes.

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MICHAEL ALLABY. "Cinchona." A Dictionary of Plant Sciences. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MICHAEL ALLABY. "Cinchona." A Dictionary of Plant Sciences. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O7-Cinchona.html

MICHAEL ALLABY. "Cinchona." A Dictionary of Plant Sciences. 1998. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O7-Cinchona.html

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cinchona

A Dictionary of Nursing | 2008 | Copyright

cinchona (sing-koh-nă) n. the dried bark of Cinchona trees, formerly used in medicine to stimulate the appetite and to prevent haemorrhage and diarrhoea. Cinchona is the source of quinine.

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

	Cinchona hunter. (forest history) Magazine article from: American Forests; 5/1/1994
	In search of the fever tree: Mark Honigsbaum follows the trail of Richard... Magazine article from: Geographical; 11/1/2001
	Tonic water: sweet, bitter medicine. Magazine article from: Art Culinaire; 6/22/2008