Cinchona
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Cinchona is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae containing at least 23 species of trees and shrubs. All are native to the tropical Andean forests of western South America. A few specie
Starr 020501 0057 Cinchona pubescens
Cortex peruvianus study by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, 1706
Cinchona officinalis, the harvested bark
Peru offers a branch of cinchona to science (from a 17th-century engraving).
Quinine
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Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to Plasmodium falciparum that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. Whi
Cinchona
…and Java, where they have formed hybrids. Cinchona has been historically sought after for its medicinal value, as the bark of several species yields quinine and other alkaloids. Trees in the genus are also known as fever trees because of their antimalarial properties. These were the only effective treatments…
Tonic water, in normal light and ultraviolet "black light". The quinine content of tonic water causes it to fluoresce under black light.
19th-century illustration of Cinchona calisaya