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cinchona

 
Dictionary: cin·cho·na   (sĭng-kō'nə, sĭn-chō'-) pronunciation
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n.
  1. Any of several trees and shrubs of the genus Cinchona, native chiefly to the Andes and cultivated for bark that yields the medicinal alkaloids quinine and quinidine, which are used to treat malaria.
  2. The dried bark of any of these plants. Also called Jesuit's bark, Peruvian bark.

[New Latin Cinchona, genus name, reputedly after Francisca Henríquez de Ribera (1576-1639), Countess of Chinchón.]

cinchonic cin·chon'ic (sĭng-kŏn'ĭk, sĭn-chŏn'-) adj.

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: cinchona
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Any of about 40 species, mostly trees, that make up the genus Cinchona in the madder family. Cinchona is native to the Andes Mountains. Four species have been cultivated in tropical regions for hundreds of years, mostly in Java and, since World War II, in Africa. The bark is processed to obtain various alkaloids. The most significant are quinine, used to treat malaria, and quinidine, used mainly for cardiac rhythmic disorders. High demand for quinine among Europeans living in the tropics led naturalists to smuggle cinchona seeds from South America to plantations in Asia in the mid 1800s and to conduct intensive research leading to new high-yield strains and improved processing methods.

For more information on cinchona, visit Britannica.com.

Sci-Tech Encyclopedia: Cinchona
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A genus of trees belonging to the madder family (Rubiaceae), occurring indigenously in the cool, cloud forests of the Andes from Colombia to Peru. Many species have been described, most of which may be variants of Cinchona pubescens or C. officinalis. The bark contains several alkaloids, the most important of which is quinine. This bitter substance is the most specific drug used in the treatment of malaria. The great demand for quinine and the wasteful methods used in collecting the materials threatened extinction of the plants; therefore cultivation was begun. Now there are extensive cinchona plantations in India, Java, Sri Lanka, Australia, and Jamaica. See also Quinine; Rubiales.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: cinchona
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cinchona (sĭngkō'nə) or chinchona (chĭngkō'nə), 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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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Sci-Tech Encyclopedia. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more